STONEY BROOK, New York — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore battled back from a double-digit deficit a couple times and trailed by as few as six points with two minutes to go, but fell at Stoney Brook 69-59 on Wednesday (Dec. 21) afternoon.
"I thought we did a good job of focusing on the things we wanted to focus on — defensive transition being one of them," Hawks head coach Fred Batchelor said. "I thought that was huge. Stoney Brook is a very talented team with a lot of experience. I thought we made things very difficult for them."
The Hawks (3-10) forced 20 Seawolves turnovers and had 34 points in the paint to 24 by Stoney Brook, but were outrebounded 46-36.
"We tied it right before the half and they scored in 13 seconds just from being talented," Batchelor said. "I thought down the stretch they just wore us down a little bit. I thought our kids played a complete game it's just in order for us to win a game like that we have to rise to a whole other level defensively and offensively and we weren't able to do that."
Mahogany Lester (Virginia Beach, Virginia) scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds to go with an assist, a block and a pair of steals before fouling out.
"She had a huge impact on the game on both ends of the floor and I think this is just building her confidence," Batchelor said. "At the end of the day this is really just her second season despite her being a senior in the classroom. I think sometimes we don't remember we are talking about essentially being a sophomore."
The Hawks did get 18 points from junior Zamara Haynes (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) on 8-of-20 shooting, and dished out seven assists. Backcourt mate Mya Thomas (Chesapeake, Virginia) added 11 on 5-of-10 shooting. Ariana Seawell (Bronx, New York) chipped in eight points and five boards, while Makayla Adams (Bowie, Maryland) had a season-high seven rebounds.
"I thought our kids responded well being on the road," Batchelor said. "I thought we defended pretty well. It was just a difference in level of experience."
Graduate student Anastasia Warren scored a game-high 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting including 6-of-10 from behind the arc.
"You put that kid on our team and we win by 10," Batchelor said. "That's as simple as it goes. How do you analyze that? We were outrebounded, but not by much. I thought we rebounded that ball fairly well and we won the turnover battle."
UMES turned it over just four times in the second half, shot 36% from the field despite a poor start (23%) in the first quarter.
"I keep telling our kids we don't have a Messiah, so we have to do things as a group," Batchelor said. "I thought we put ourselves in a position to do that, but there were a couple of buckets we didn't finish on that made the difference. I thought we did a good job of getting the shots we wanted, we just didn't complete them. We just would have had to play a great game."
The Hawks will next face Bryn Athyn at home at 3 p.m. on Dec. 30. They begin Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play on Jan. 7 at Norfolk.
