Hawks fall to high-powered NC State offense, 93-61

 
RALEIGH, North Carolina – Playing inside of a sold out Jim Valvano Arena, the Hawks were unable to keep up with a high-powered offense in NC State as UMES lost 93-61 on Wednesday night.


The loss drops UMES to 2-6 overall while NC State improved to 6-2 on the year.

 
The NC State Wolfpack jumped out a 16-8 lead by the 11:50 mark of the first half as Jayden Taylor had seven early points for the Pack.
Hawk forward Devon Ellis drew charge and then scored on the next possession to bring UMES with nine at the 9:20 mark. Chace Davis knocked down a three as UMES clawed back to with six at the 8:24 mark.
 

The Hawks continued to hover around that margin before two turnovers combined with Diara Mohamad layin and a pull up jumper by Dennis Parker on the other end helped put NC State up by 12 with 3:35 remaning in the first.

 
Three pointers from Damani Claxton and Troy Hupstead helped the Hawks trim down the deficit back to eight with under two minutes to play.

 
A three by LJ Thomas with under a minute in the half put the Pack back up by double digits and NC State took a 37-25 lead at half.

 
"I thought we did a good job keeping one of the top offensive teams in the country in check for most of the first half," said Hawk head coach Jason Crafton. "NC State shot the ball very well and have done a great job on the offensive end all season long averaging nearly 80 points per contest. I felt that we challenged them on every possession and did a good job of competing throughout the majority of the night before the game got away from us midway through the second half."

 
The Hawks stayed within striking distance through the early stages of the second half. A Tyler Mack make from beyond the arc brought the Hawks to within nine at the 16:31 mark. Mack made another at the 14:29 mark as the margin was 10 before NC State answered with a three point make and dunk by DJ Horne to go up by 15 with 13:20 to play.

 
"We did not do a great job of taking care of the ball and NC State took full advantage of that," said Crafton. "We played hard defensively but gave up to many points in transition which allowed them to pull away from us in the second half. Moving forward, we have to play smarter against teams of this caliber if we want to have success."

 
While the Hawks struggled to find consistent offense, the Wolf Pack offense erupted to the tune of a season-high 56 points in the final 20 minutes along with over 60% shooting from the field.

 
NC State finished the night with its best shooting performance of the year at 59% from the field (35-59) while six players scored in double-figures. NC State was led by Taylor's 21 points, four rebounds, two assists, and two steals

 
Hupstead led the Hawks with a game-high 20 points along with ten rebounds and two steals. Ellis and Davis each finished with 12 points each.

 
"I think we had good effort tonight but we need more consistency," Crafton says. "Playing in front of a sold out crowd on the road against a quality opponent in NC State is an experience that will benefit our team moving forward. The fans and the energy was great from start to finish. It's good to have our guys play in these types of settings. UMES has been able to travel to places like this as well as Duke, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Stanford and others which has served as great experience for our student-athletes."

 
The Hawks will have an extended break before traveling to play at Marist on December 18.


(Note: Stat corrections made on Thursday, December 7th)