NORFOLK, Virginia — In their MEAC quarterfinal matchup with the North Carolina Central University Eagles, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team had a rough night shooting the ball as the Eagles came out on top 68-56 on Thursday night (March 10).
"I thought it was a game where we struggled to make shots and later in the season we have been a team that has relied on the 3-point shot," head coach Jason Crafton said. "But shout out to Central, I thought they had a great game plan because it was an ugly game with two intense defensive teams. However, they found ways to get to the basket when they didn't make threes and shot 38 free throws to our 21 and I thought that was the difference."
The Hawks struggled out of the gate as they came up empty on their first five possessions. Junior Kevon Voyles made the team's first basket at the 16:36 mark as NCCU led 6-2. The Eagles would get the next four points of the game to lead 10-2 with 15:39 left in the first half.
Senior Nathaniel Pollard, Jr. then went on his own personal 5-0 run to bring the score to 10-7 with 13:38 on the clock. NC Central would respond and get their advantage to 18-11 four minutes later.
Eastern Shore would get the lead back down to three on two separate occasions in the first half, but NCCU was able to keep the lead for the rest of the half and were up 30-25 at the break.
Both teams struggled from outside the arc in the first 20 minutes. The Hawks shot 12.5% from long range, while North Carolina Central shot 14.3%. However, the two teams combined to miss just four free throws on 19 total attempts with Eastern Shore at 85.7%.
In the opening minutes of the second half, Coach Crafton went to a lineup of five guards to change the pace of the game. The Hawks responded by outscoring the Eagles 9-4 in the first four minutes of the half and tied the score at 34 following a free throw by Zion Styles at the 16:11 mark. Junior Dom London hit a pull up jumper one minute later to give the team its first lead of the game.
Following the London make, the Hawks went over six minutes without a point. NCCU scored ten straight points and Eastern Shore would not get a point until a layup by senior Zion Styles made the score 44-38 with 9:32 left.
The Shore would never get closer than five points for the remainder of the game as they continued to struggle from the field. Eastern Shore shot 32.8% from the field in the game and made just two shots from behind the arc. The Eagles bench also outscored the Hawks bench 28-2.
Pollard, Jr. tied his season high with 19 points in the game. Voyles scored 13 points to also get in double figures for Eastern Shore. NCCU had five players end up in double figures for the game.
The Hawks finished the season 11-15. After not playing in the 2020-21 season, the team was able to more than double their win total from two seasons ago when the team won just five games. The team also finished the season getting 10.2 steals per game which is the best mark in school history.
"I think we showed a lot of progress in terms of building our culture and our foundation on the defensive end with things we started in my first year and carried that over to this year," Crafton said. "So I thought our guys, for not playing last season, we still were able to do some cool things that we can build off of."
