Hawks fall victim to quick turnaround and hot Liberty team in Saturday loss

LYNCHBURG, Va. – A slow start for the University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball prevented the Hawks from keeping up with Liberty University on Saturday afternoon on the road in Lynchburg, Va. in a 99-62 loss.
 
"Liberty is a really good team, and even better at home," mentioned head coach Jason Crafton. "We have played them every year I have been here and they do a really good job recruiting to their system. They did an excellent job with the basketball to get their open looks. We had a quick turnaround from Wednesday's game at Notre Dame.which made it difficult to fully prepare for another tough game on our travel schedule."
 
The Flames jumped out to a 10-4 lead going into the first media timeout of the half at 14:58 with Devon Ellis scoring both baskets for the UMES. From 16:16 to 12:02, the Flames went on a 14-2 run to extend their lead to 20-6 at the second media break.
 
The two teams would play even with each other as both would score six points before the next stoppage in play with Liberty leading 26-12. An 11-0 run by the Flames forced Crafton to call a time out with 1:25 left in the first half, as Liberty led 50-23 at halftime.
 
The shooting slump from the Notre Dame game continued for the Hawks as they were held to just 38.5% shooting in the first 20 minutes while the Flames shot 65.6% during the same time. Liberty was led by Kaden Metheny's 16 points, including 4-of-6 from beyond the arc in the first half.
 
"I think we played too much 1-on-1 basketball versus a team like that," added Craft. "We have to get back to really trusting our offense and move the basketball to get the open shots. We did not do that today."
 
The second half was not much kinder to the Hawks as were forced to call a timeout with 13:09 left in the game, trailing 64-33. Even with shooting near 50% in the second half, the Hawks could not overcome a hot shooting Flame team during the rest of the game who made 15 three-pointers, including eight in the second half.
 
UMES was led by Kelechi Okworogwo who had a team high 12 points and eight rebounds. Metheny finished with 20 points for the Flames while Joseph Venzant had 11 rebounds.
 
"We will watch the film, get better and go from there," Crafton wrapped up with. "We have some time to get healthy. We did see some good things from Kelechi that I think we can use going forward."
 
The Hawks return home on Friday, Dec. 1 when they welcome Hampton to campus for an 8 p.m. tip-off.