RICHMOND, Virginia — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore found itself in a deep hole rather quickly on Wednesday (Dec. 1) night at University of Richmond falling behind 23-10 with just over a minute left in the first quarter.

From there, the game became a battle as Brooklyn Bailey (Rock Hill, South Carolina) scored the last five points of the quarter to bring the Hawks (3-4) back within striking distance. But despite a herculean effort on the glass and a stronger defensive performance for the rest of the contest that brought them within five points with 34 seconds left, The Shore found itself on the wrong end of a 69-59 loss.

"The thing I am most proud of is the resiliency that we showed," Eastern Shore head coach Fred Batchelor said. "We took a couple big punches in the first quarter. We picked our poison, which was giving up perimeter shots and they capitalized off of them. They did that really well, scoring 20 plus points in the first quarter, but I thought our ability to really hold them to nine in the second quarter gave us a chance — too bad we only scored seven."

The Hawks trailed 32-22 at the half and by the end of the third had cut that margin to just three (47-44). One way they did that was aggressive play on the glass that saw them actually outrebound a much larger overall roster 47-44. Twenty-two of those rebounds came on the offensive end, but the length of the Spiders did pose a problem there as they held Eastern Shore to 32% from the field.

"I'm pleased with the effort and one of the things that I challenged them to do was to outrebound them and we were able to do so," Batchelor said. "They are big all over the court and I thought our kids dug in and worked."

Graduate students Amanda Carney (Old Bridge, New Jersey) and Bairesha Gill-Miles (Lexington, Kentucky) led the way for the Hawks on the glass with nine rebounds apiece. Carney added 13 points — including 3-of-6 from behind the arc — blocked a shot and dished out a team-high three assists.

Bailey led the Hawks in scoring with 16 points, had a pair of rebounds, an assist and a team-high three steals.

"I love the assertiveness that I saw from Brooklyn tonight," Batchelor said. "If not for her play, we are not in the game that we were in. I thought we saw some things from Amanda who played one of her better games of the year. She was very aggressive and assertive and looking for opportunities to score. I think this could be something that we build on to put ourselves in a position to be successful and get something on the road."

The Shore took good care of the ball, turning it over just seven times and forcing 12 from Richmond which they converted to 13 points. They also held a 24-18 advantage in points in the paint.

However, after a very strong performance from the line at home versus Millersville, Batchelor was disappointed with the 44% on free throws at Robins Center.

"If we are able to capitalize from the free throw line — we left nine free throws on the table," Batchelor said. "If we are able to capitalize off of that it is a different game. Because it's not just the nine points, but rather how those points would have changed how the game was played."

As Batchelor continues to figure out his rotations, he got some key minutes from his bench. Taylor Clayborne (Upper Marlboro, Maryland) seven points three boards and a pair of steals in 19 minutes and freshman Arian Seawell (Bronx, New York) pulled down four rebounds in 16 minutes in relief of Mahogany Lester (Virginia Beach, Virginia) who got into some early foul trouble.

"Taylor was very big in the second quarter," Batchelor said. "She scored half of our points that quarter. She came in and gave us a big lift off the bench. I thought Ariana came in and made a couple of good plays. It's just learning how to capitalize on some things moving forward that is important for them. But for both to be as effective as they were coming off the bench and when we needed it most was big. That was how we were able to get back in the game — with the help of the bench."

The Hawks will next host the Naval Academy (2-5) on Sunday (Dec. 5) at 2 p.m.

"We talked a lot about really becoming a unit that is centrally focused on not ourselves," Batchelor said. "I addressed that at halftime — they are great kids — but there is a different type of sacrifice that has to be made for teams to win championships and build championship character. I'm challenging them on that, because they haven't played ball in a year, so everybody wants to show how much of an impact they make.

"We have got to find that championship character that is more concerned with making the next person look good as opposed to us being recognized."