PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team played in a back and forth classic on Monday night (March 4) against the Morgan State University Bears and came out victorious with a 78-73 win.
"This a great win for the young men," head coach Clifford Reed said. "Morgan State is a good team and they are very tough so for us to come out beat them says a lot about how much we have improved."
The Hawks (6-24, 4-11 MEAC) had their best shooting game of the season from the field. Maryland Eastern Shore shot 55.6 percent from the field for the game and scored a season high 78 points.
The Shore kept the Bears from holding a lead the entire first half. A big part of that was getting off to a good start. The Hawks led 12-2 following two 3-pointers in a row from Ryan Andino (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) less than five minutes into the game. Point guard Bryan Urrutia (Chihuahua, Mexico) was aggressive in the early going as he had 14 points before halftime. His strong play helped catapult Eastern Shore into a 40-34 halftime lead.
MSU came out of the locker room with a sense of urgency as they gained a 44-43 lead after just three minutes of play in the second half. Junior Gabriel Gyamfi (Brampton, ON, Canada) answered right back 30 seconds later to give the Hawks the lead again, but that sequence would foreshadow how the game would be played for the last 16 minutes.
Urrutia hit a jumper with 10:17 left to make the score 59-52. The Bears would answer with eight straight points to take a 60-59 lead. Local product Colen Gaynor (Berlin, MD) sank two free throws to put The Shore up 61-60 with 7:51 remaining, but Morgan State answered right back with a 3-pointer. The visitors would hold the lead for the next six minutes with their advantage climbing up to as many as five.
Junior Ahmad Frost (Cincinnati, OH) made a tip-in with 1:24 left to tie the score at 71. After a missed jumper from the Bears, the Hawks raced down and found Isaac Taylor (Wachapreague, VA) underneath. The junior took his time on the post and spun in for a layup to give Eastern Shore a 73-71 lead with under a minute left.
After another missed opportunity for MSU, Taylor collected a rebound and went to the other end and made one out of two free throws to make the score 74-71. Morgan State came down and got a layup off of an offensive rebound to close the gap to 74-73 with 21 seconds left.
Frost would get the inbounds pass and be fouled. He calmly sank both foul shots to make the score 76-73 with 15 seconds left. The Bears came down court and found Kyson Rawls in the corner for a 3-pointer but his attempt rimmed out and Frost got the rebound and hit two more from the line to seal the game.
Six Hawks were in double figures in scoring in the game. Urrutia led the way with a game high 18 points. Frost and Gyamfi each had 12 points. Gyamfi also had three blocks.
Andino, Taylor and AJ Cheeseman (Snellville, GA) all finished with 10 points. This was Cheeseman's first game in double figures since Dec. 15 at Pittsburgh. Cheeseman also finished with a team high nine rebounds which was a welcomed sight that the Hawks lacked in the first half of conference play.
"When AJ concentrates on rebounding the rest of his game just falls into place," Reed said. "It's great to see him playing that way because those actions are contagious to the rest of the guys."
Morgan State got 49 points from their bench on Monday evening. The majority of those points came from Isaiah Burke's 17 points and 16 points from Stanley Davis. Davis had 13 rebounds for MSU as well.
The Shore will close their regular season slate of games on Thursday night (March 7) against Delaware State. Following the game, the Hawks will find out what seed they have and who their first opponent will be in the MEAC Tournament that begins on March 11 at Scope Arena in Norfolk, VA.
For more information on Eastern Shore Athletics visit http://www.easternshorehawks.com/.
