PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore dropped its Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opener to a high powered Howard squad on Jan. 4 and just seven days later things get no easier.
The Hawks (3-11, 0-1 MEAC) will face off with North Carolina A&T State (9-4, 1-0) at 2 p.m. on Jan. 11 and will have their hands full.
The Aggies finished last season 16-0 in the MEAC and have won 28 straight regular season conference contests.
"They are very athletic and very big in multiple positions not just the post," Eastern Shore coach Fred Batchelor said. "They have really good size on the perimeter. They have legitimate mid-major athletes with mid-major athleticism. That is the biggest problem they pose — keeping them off the glass and the problems they present defensively on the perimeter."
The A&T roster features five players bigger than six feet tall including senior center Alexus Lessears (6-foot-3) and senior forward Le'on Hill (6-2) who combine for 12.5 rebounds a game.
"Those are things we can't change," Batchelor said. "We just want to pick a couple things we can do to make it more difficult for them and make them play a game they don't want to play and beat us that way."
It isn't just the post where the Aggies rise above a lot of opponents. Senior Deja Winters leads the team in scoring with 13.8 points per game and she is 5-foot-11. Classmate C'coriea Foy — a two time First-Team All-MEAC selection — is 6-foot tall and plays on the perimeter. She is averaging 11.5 points and 5.5 rebounds.
"It is going to bigger than just our post players doing their jobs," Batchelor said. "It is going to be about our guards blocking out because we are going to get hit with a huge size differential, not just from the wings, but from our guards rotating down to block out. We are going to have to be really fundamentally sound."
Last season the Hawks led their home battle with the Aggies for 30 minutes of a contest that featured just eight lead changes. A&T made three baskets from behind the arc in the final four minutes of the game and escaped the William. P Hytche Athletic Center with a 51-49 win. The Hawks turned the ball over 19 times in that game including three times in the final two minutes.
"They have always been a big team," Batchelor said. "We have had success against them when we didn't become our own worst enemy. That is the only way we are going to have success against them. We lost in here by one point last year based on the fact that we ended up having more turnovers at key points in the game. We have had success when we didn't do things that hurt us."
The Aggies make things tough on their opponents because of the defensive intensity and pressure they put on teams not allowing them to get comfortable. Overcoming pressure has been a problem for the Hawks all season and taking care of the basketball will continue to be key.
"It's going to be the same things for us playing most of our conference games and that is just not beating yourselves. As good as Howard was, at the end of the day, they scored 21 points off our turnovers. You can't win like that against anybody especially when you are playing against team that is better than you on paper."
Junior Amanda Carney (Old Bridge, New Jersey) is averaging 14.4 points over the last five games, while sophomore Brooklyn Bailey (Rock Hill, South Carolina) is putting up 13 a game over the last five.
Junior forward Bairesha Gill-Miles (Lexington, Kentucky) put up 10 points in limited action against Howard — her first game back from injury and will be looking to get back to form as her minutes increase.
