PRINCESSE ANNE, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is coming off consecutive victories for the first time this season and will face Coppin State (3-24, 3-12 MEAC) for the second time this season. The first game saw The Shore fall in Baltimore by a 66-63 score.
The game matters a great deal to the Hawks (7-21, 4-11 MEAC) because they look to continue their strong play headed into next week's Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament. It is also senior night where the team will celebrate its four seniors: Adrienne Jones (Baltimore, Maryland), Dayona Godwin (Ocean Pines, Maryland), Chioma Nkpuechina (Anambra, Nigeria) and Ksenia Popovich (Moscow, Russia).
But the odd thing about Thursday's (March 5) contest is that no matter the outcome the Hawks will still be facing the Eagles again on Tuesday (March 10) at Noon in the first round of the MEAC Tournament.
If Eastern Shore wins the contest they will finish No. 8 in the regular season standings and Coppin ninth. If Coppin should sweep the regular season they would finish eighth by virtue of the head-to-head tiebreaker.
"We haven't had that happen before," Hawks coach Fred Batchelor said. "Usually we find that out the next day when we look at the standings after the last day of play. I don't know if I have ever experienced knowing going in like this. What it does is force us to focus on this game. I think from there if we focus on tonight and paying the best basketball we can tonight then we can look at what we have to do to be successful in the tournament."
The Eagles were winless when the two teams met last time, but they went on a three-game winning streak that included a big victory against Norfolk State.
"They will be a tough team," Batchelor said. "They have an all-conference player in Chance Graham who is a defensive presence and an offensive presence. They have a great player on their team and then the other kids if they play well they always have a chance."
"We just have to defend," Batchelor said. "We have to defend and not depend just on us making shots or playing well on offense to win. I think if we can defend at a high level, we can be successful based on defending and rebounding."
In the game at Coppin, Graham played just 11 minutes in the second half due to foul trouble. Classmate Oluwadamilola Oloyede and sophomore Jaylnda Sally combined for 12 points and 11 rebounds in the second half. Oloyede knocked down a pair of free throws with two seconds left to ice it.
Sally finished the game with 18 points and seven rebounds on 7-of-9 shooting from the field in 27 minutes.
"She is going to be a challenge for us," Batchelor said. "The thing is that she has played well every time we have played them. She takes advantage of our lack of size. We'll be looking to utilize as much size as we have on our bench to neutralize that. I thought the second half, we did a really good job of making the adjustment where they didn't hurt us off the high-low play. In the second half, she hurt us off the offensive rebound where we allowed dribble penetration.
"If we contain penetration, it really puts our post players in position to rebound against somebody bigger and stronger. When we give up penetration, our posts have to help and there is no way they can recover."
After all is said and done on Thursday, The Shore will turn its attention to next week's MEAC Tournament. Despite the struggles this season, Batchelor has said all along he wanted his team to peak in March.
"There is nobody in this league that any team can't beat," Batchelor said.
