PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team took flight in its final tune-up before conference action, knocking off St. Mary's College of Maryland by an 87-56 final at the Hytche on Monday evening.
The win is the Hawks (7-7) seventh of the season, the most for the team prior to Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play since 2014-15. The program also holds the best win percentage entering conference play (.500) since the 1995-96 season.
"That's not easy to do here at Maryland Eastern Shore when you have to play the volume of guarantee games and road games we have to play," head coach Jason Crafton said. "We don't take that lightly, it's a big time accomplishment."
Another milestone was reached by Crafton, who collected his 70th career victory on the evening.
"70 career wins, and I could probably sit back and remember every single one," Crafton said. "This one's a special one when you combine what we were able to do in the non-conference.
The night did not come without challenges. Graduate guard Ahamadou Fofana, who had started every game for the Hawks prior and still leads the team in minutes, was sidelined with an injury.
Senior guard Jojo Anderson stepped into the starting five to run the point. As the game went on, the Hawks experimented with several groups that had not seen time together yet this season.
"With what we're trying to do out here, we would like to be at full strength, but that's not always going to be the case," Crafton said. "This game gave us an opportunity, per the injuries, to play some lineups that hadn't played together."
Nathaniel Pollard Jr. stuffed the stat sheet on both ends of the floor in the win, scoring 17 points and logging eight boards while collecting a career-high six steals and tying his career-high with three blocks.
Kevon Voyles was just behind in the scoring column with 13 points while swiping three passes as well. Chace Davis and Zion Styles each finished with 10 points in the effort. Styles also brought down six rebounds and tallied three assists and two pickpockets.
Anderson collected three assists and two rebounds in the spot start, while fellow backcourt member Tuka Nugent scored nine on the night. Troy Hupstead also dropped nine, while freshmen Dionte Johnson and Victory Naboya each scored six.
Toby Nnadozie scored as well to give everyone off the Hawk bench at least two points in the contest.
"We saw some good signs from the bench, and I thought we were able to get ourselves back into shape," Crafton said. "Sometimes you have to play in games to do that after break, so it was good to see our cardio level was back up to that place."
The Hawks shot 51.4 percent from the floor, while St. Mary's hit their looks at a 44 percent clip. UMES won the battle on the boards 31-23 and the defense delivered on its "tenacious" principles once more, gathering 19 steals and blocking four Seahawk shots.
"I think it's becoming more than just a T-shirt, it's becoming a way of life," Crafton said. "We've still got a ways to go and our league is extremely tough, but when you look at some of the things we're doing defensively and how on different nights we have different guys step up in different ways, that's the 1-WAY approach."
"That approach comes when you combine Family and Tenacity together, and that's something we are aggressively trying to instill in our guys. We've come a long way as a program and we still have a long way to go, but we are excited to get better and move towards conference play on Saturday."
The Hawks now turn their focus to MEAC play, beginning this Saturday, January 7 in Norfolk, Virginia. UMES travels to face the reigning conference champion Norfolk State Spartans at 4 p.m. to open the conference slate.
