NORFOLK, Virginia — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore dug itself a deep hole on Saturday (Feb. 12) at Norfolk State, going down 22-8 in the first quarter and never recovering on the way to a 66-52 loss.

"Norfolk was pretty good particularly in the first half," Hawks coach Fred Batchelor said. "Shooting 61% from three and making eight of them in the first half. They were really good and I felt like we were not — particularly in the first quarter with 10 turnovers.

"If you start three freshmen on the road, sometimes it looks good and sometimes it looks like this."

The Hawks (7-14, 3-6 MEAC) trailed 42-23 at the half. They were outrebounded 17-14, turned the ball over 14 times and shot just 33% from the field.

Eastern Shore cut the lead to single digits (46-38) with 4:09 left in the third when Zamara Haynes (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) found Lesley Thomas (Browns Summit, North Carolina) for a short baseline jumper.

"I thought we showed a good fight coming out of the second half to put ourselves in a position to get in the game and just couldn't get over the hump and make some plays to finish," Batchelor said. "But I liked the way the kids fought."

Graduate student Amanda Carney (Old Bridge, New Jersey) finished with a team-high 14 points to go with three rebounds off the bench. She was 3-for-9 from deep, which moved her past assistant coach Casey Monroe-Gaskins (2007-11) and into third place on the all-time list for 3-pointers made with 133.

Freshman Ariana Seawell (Bronx, New York) finished with 13 points, 7 rebounds, an assist, two steals and a block. Bairesha Gill-Miles (Lexington, Kentucky) chipped in seven rebounds.

Eastern Shore managed to even up the rebounding 39-39 by the end of the contest, but shot just 29% from the field and 19% from behind the arc.

The Hawks will next travel to face South Carolina State on Saturday (Feb. 18) at 2 p.m. and North Carolina Central on Monday (Feb. 21) at 5:30 p.m.

"We have to be up for it," Batchelor said. "This is the time right now where we are playing for some seeding. We want to play our best basketball at the end of the year going into the tournament. I think we have a great opportunity with what we have left on the schedule. Three of our last five are on the road. We close out at home and we get a game back at home that we didn't play really well on the road (Coppin State) and I like how the schedule lays out for us and we have to take advantage of it.

"It's on us."