ORANGEBURG, South Carolina — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore led by as many as 10 points in the first half and as late as the 7:34 mark of the fourth quarter on Monday at South Carolina State (3-15, 2-3 MEAC). But the Bulldogs refused to go away easily taking the lead early in the fourth and holding off the Hawks for a 60-55 victory.
"I'm just kind of at a loss for words," Hawks coach Fred Batchelor said. "We probably played our worst basketball game today in a situation where we had an opportunity to win our first game on the road and kind of what could go wrong did go wrong. We just have to get mentally tougher — mentally and emotionally tougher. That's the biggest thing. We have to get tougher and we have to get better. It starts with me and we have to continue to work to get better."
The Bulldogs got 33 points from junior Heniaya Moten who was 5-of-12 from behind the arc and 12-of-17 from the free throw line. She picked up 16 of those points in the decisive fourth quarter. It was a career high for the former Savannah State guard, but not by much.
"She had 31 at Charleston Southern," Batcheler said. " I saw it on film. And when she gets it going she's tough. I remember her from playing at Savannah. She scored more than half their points."
The Hawks (4-14, 1-4 MEAC) actually won the battle on the boards 38-32 and forced 18 turnovers, but coughed it up just 17 times and had two assists.
They finished the game just 2-of-19 from behind the arc and 13-of-24 from the free throw line while shooting 34% from the field (20-of-59).
"It is some of the same things that have been bothering us all year," Batchelor said.
The bench did score 32 of the Hawks 55 points including a team-high 13 from Dayona Godwin (Ocean Pines, Maryland) in just 14 minutes. Six of her points came during a key stretch of the first quarter when the Hawks took the lead.
Eastern Shore then used and 8-2 run to push the lead to 21-11 with 6:22 to go in the second quarter looking like they could pull away big because of their defensive intensity.
But they missed three shots on the next possession, then allowed a layup on the other end prompting a timeout by Batchelor.
"I thought a key moment in the game was when we were up 10," Batchelor said. "We had a lapse and a breakdown — a mental breakdown — because we relaxed and I called a timeout to tell them that. We just never really recovered from that. There are opportunities to take teams out and we just didn't take advantage of it."
Two minutes later the lead was just one point. The Shore managed to push it as high as six, but the Bulldogs tied it at 34-34 with 3:52 left in the third. They tied it again moments later and took a brief 37-36 lead. The Hawks pushed the lead back to five by the end of the third, but then let it get away in the fourth.
Next up for Eastern Shore is Morgan State at home on Monday (Jan. 27).
