Hawks drop season opener at Vanderbilt
 
SUMMARY – The University of Maryland Eastern Shore lost the season opener to SEC opponent Vanderbilt, 102-63, on Monday night.
 

THE SCORE
 
Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks (0-1) – 102
Vanderbilt (1-0) – 63
 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
In a matchup against SEC opponent Vanderbilt, the Hawks fell behind 9-3 after the first four minutes of play as UMES shooters opened to a 1-for-5 mark from the field. Vanderbilt led by as many as 20 midway through the opening half before a 9-0 run sparked by the scoring of transfer guard Ketron "KC" Shaw helped the Hawks narrow the gap down to 45-33 by halftime.
 
The Commodores took the momentum in the second half. A 9-0 run by Vanderbilt extended the lead to 20 by the 13 minute mark. UMES was unable to recover from that point on as the Commodores cruised to an eventual 102-63 victory.

 
KEY STATS

UMES went into Monday night's game with all players on the active roster making their Hawk debut.

Vanderbilt's Devin McGlockton led all players with 24 points and 13 rebounds.

Shaw led the Hawks with a team-high 23 points while converting eight of 16 shot attempts. Cardell Bailey had 10 point to pace UMES scoring.

Jalen Ware led UMES with nine rebounds.

UMES committed 15 turnovers compared to just one Vanderbilt giveaway.

Vanderbilt managed to outrebound the Hawks, 48-30.

Eight of nine Hawks who saw action on Monday logged points.


 
COMMENTS FROM HAWK COACH CLEO HILL, JR
 
"We took an early punch from Vanderbilt but I thought we did a good job of responding in the first half. Coach Byington does an excellent job with his guys and they had an excellent second half of basketball while we simply did not play up to level I think we are capable of."

"These types of games as well as the entire month of November will be about learning what we do well and how we respond under pressure. I thought guys like KC (Shaw) and Cardell (Bailey) showed what they can do offensively. I also like what Ralph (Martino) was able to do coming off the bench."

"It will be important for us to continue to adjust. Going into tonight with nine active players, we felt it would be imperative to find ways to preserve our guys."


"Vanderbilt shot the ball extremely well and turned up the defensive pressure on us in the second half. We turned the ball over quite a bit and they didn't which turned out to be the story of tonight's game."

 
NEXT UP


The Hawks travel to UPenn on Thursday at 7 pm.