DOVER, Delaware — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team got an emotional 68-66 win on Monday evening (Feb. 3) against their Route 13 rival, the Delaware State University Hornets. The Hawks got their first road win of the season on Monday night.
"This has been a tough year at times, but I just always want to push these guys regardless of what people think about us," Hawks coach Jason Crafton said. "So we wanted to take every opportunity in a local rivalry game to have as much energy and passion and be the tougher team and I was proud that we were."
The first half saw both teams take turns going on scoring runs and trade the lead three times. Freshman Da'Shawn Phillip (Baltimore, Maryland) scored the game's first five points. The Hornets would respond by scoring the next 10.
Eastern Shore would enjoy their longest run during the middle of the half when they went on a 12-3 burst catapulted by three consecutive shots from downtown to take a 21-18 lead with 11:27 left before halftime. DSU would outscore the Hawks 22-15 for the remainder of the half to take a 40-36 lead into the locker room.
Redshirt senior Ahmad Frost (Cincinnati, Ohio) began the squad's surge after the break. After scoring just three points in the first half, he scored 10 points in the opening 11 minutes of the second half. His bucket at the 8:42 mark gave the Hawks a 55-54 advantage.
When play resumed after the under 8:00 media timeout, the game was tied at 55. Senior Gabriel Gyamfi (Brampton, Ontario, Canada) got a fast break dunk off a feed from Frost with 6:51 left. That began an 8-1 run for Maryland Eastern Shore to give them a 63-56 lead with 3:47 remaining.
DSU would go on an 8-0 run to take a 64-63 lead at the 1:49 mark. That set the stage for the contest to have three lead changes in the final two minutes.
Senior AJ Cheeseman (Snellville, Georgia) made a layup off a feed from Phillip to make the score 65-64 with 1:32 left. Delaware State retook a 66-65 lead on the ensuing possession. Gyamfi missed a 3-pointer on the next possession, but the Hornets could not take advantage and missed a jumper after that.
The Shore would be on the run after the miss and the Hawks missed a shot, but Gyamfi would get the offensive rebound and get fouled. With 13 seconds on the clock, Gyamfi stepped to the line and calmly sank two free throws with a raucous Memorial Hall crowd in his face.
"When I saw Gabe get to the line, I knew those free throws were going to go in," Crafton said. "He is a gym rat, puts so much work in and it was poetic that it came off a toughness play after getting to the offensive glass."
The Hornets' John Crosby missed a baseline jumper seven seconds later and the rebound resulted in a jump ball with Eastern Shore gaining possession.
Cheeseman was fouled after the team inbounded the ball and walked to the line for a one-and-one. He made the first, missed the second and DSU could only manage a desperation heave off the rebound that fell short to give Eastern Shore the win.
Gyamfi logged his first double-double in a Maryland Eastern Shore uniform with 11 points and 10 rebounds. He had just four points and one rebound at halftime.
Three other Hawks finished in double figures. Frost led the Hawks with 15 points. Cheeseman had 13 and junior Canaan Bartley (Miami, Florida) finished with 10 points. The conference's leading scorer Crosby had a game-high 19 points to lead Delaware State.
The Shore will now head to Baltimore to face Morgan State on Saturday (Feb. 8). For now, the squad will enjoy their win over their rivals as they take valuable lessons from Monday's game.
"Whether it's a rivalry game or not, we want to be a team that is right there with a chance to win the basketball game in the last two minutes," Crafton said. "We learned tonight how to execute to win and that was good for us in terms of our process."
For more information on Eastern Shore Athletics visit http://www.easternshorehawks.com/.
