LYNCHBURG, Virginia — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team dropped their Saturday evening (November 27) game 73-61 to the Liberty University Flames.

The Hawks (2-4) had a strong first 30 minutes of shooting, but had some trouble getting the ball in the basket in the final 10 minutes. The team made just three field goals in the final quarter of the contest.

"They adjusted to how we were playing by taking their bigs out and played five guards like we were," head coach Jason Crafton said. "It allowed them to level our drives off smoother and that adjustment worked in their favor."

The Shore played the Flames fairly even in the opening minutes of the game. Junior Dom London hit a jumper at the 11:05 mark of the first half to make the score 17-12 in favor of Liberty. The Flames answered that by scoring 10 unanswered points to take a 15 point lead with seven minutes left in the half.

After the Flames led by 15, Eastern Shore began to slowly cut into the lead. They got 3-pointers from juniors Kevon Voyles and Kohen Thompson to put the lead into single digits at 27-18 with 4:57 on the clock. LU would get their advantage back up to 32-18 a minute later.

The lead for Liberty would seesaw between eight and 11 points for the remainder of the half. Freshman Chace Davis, who was celebrating his birthday on Saturday, hit a mid-range jump shot to make the score 36-28 with 1:03 left. The Flames got a 3-pointer on the next possession, but that was answered by another three by the Hawks courtesy of London right before the buzzer to make the halftime score 39-31.

In the first half, the Hawks used the long ball to keep pace with the taller Liberty squad. Eastern Shore made a total of 12 shots before halftime with seven of those coming from behind the arc. Maryland Eastern Shore shot 48% total and 58% from three point range in the opening 20 minutes.

Both teams were hitting shots after the halftime break. In the first four minutes, the Hawks scored 11 points, while the Flames had eight. The Shore would eventually get the lead down to one at the 12:33 mark when senior Donchevell "Tuka" Nugent hit a 3-pointer to make the score 50-49.

Liberty came down and made a jumper to go back up by three, but junior Da'Shawn Phillip answered right back with a bucket to make the score 52-51 with 12 minutes remaining. Unfortunately for the Hawks, they would not make another shot from the field for seven minutes.

Maryland Eastern Shore got a 3-pointer from Nugent with 1:18 left to make the score 69-61. They continued to keep pressure defense on after that to try to mount one last rally, but they couldn't as the Flames secured the 12-point win.

London led the squad in scoring with 16 points. Nugent and fellow senior Zion Styles each had 10 points. Phillip had an all-around game as he finished with seven points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Phillip's assist total was a career high for the Baltimore native.

The Hawks will now travel to face Connecticut on Tuesday (November 30). The Huskies are currently ranked No. 22 in the country.