PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore started its Saturday afternoon contest with visiting La Salle with a flurry of scoring and a 7-0 advantage forcing Explorers coach Mountain MacGillivray to sub out his entire lineup.
But as Lasalle (7-4) chopped away at the lead, the Hawks were felled quickly. The Explorers took the lead before the end of the first, and pushed it to 20 before the half.
"After the first five minutes it was downhill until the half," Hawks coach Fred Batchelor said. "At halftime, we talked about the fact that it was unacceptable."
After the grind of the nonconference season, a five-game road swing and preparing for finals next week he was afraid the team had hit a wall mentally and were overwhelmed.
"We were not in a good place and we have to stop using the fact that we are young as an excuse," Batchelor said. "We have to be professional. I told them at the half how the first half made me feel and what their responsibility was in wearing that uniform."
He challenged the team just to win the third quarter.
The Hawks (3-9) would battle back to within 10 at the end of the third and cut the lead to eight with five minutes to go before they ran out of steam falling 82-72.
"I thought, in the second half, Mahogany Lester (Virginia Beach, Virginia) gave us a level of energy that sparked us," Batchelor said. "Mya Thomas (Chesapeake, Virginia) was big the whole game. I thought I saw something different from her. I saw a lot of positives come out of this as bad as it was in the first half. But I also have some concerns that we are not able to be consistently mentally ready. That's not just youth. That's maturity."
La Salle certainly did their part to pull away, hitting 52% from the field, 43% from behind the arc and 90% from the free throw line.
"At a certain point, I started to think every one of their shots were going to go in," Batchelor said. "It's hard to beat a time like that and I don't know if we had played a really good game if we could have beat them shooting like that, but we don't have a chance if we spot a team like that 20 points."
Thomas led the Hawks with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting including a pair of threes and was a perfect 4-for-4 at the free throw line. Lester's defense was the key for her, but she added six points and three boards.
Freshman Jála Bannerman (Baltimore, Maryland) chipped in 12 points on 6-of-15 shooting and had five rebounds and a pair of steals. Classmate Ashanti Lynch (Hookerton, North Carolina) had 10 points, five boards an assist and a steal off the bench.
Ariana Seawell (Bronx, New York) finished with eight points in 22 minutes, and Batchelor thought she showed more effort on the defensive end that he has been seeing and that could be a positive sign moving forward.
The Hawks will return to action on Dec. 21 when they travel to Stoney Brook.
