Hawks unable to keep up with hot shooting North Carolina Central

 
SUMMARY

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks fell victim to a hot shooting North Carolina Central Eagles team in a 88-69 road loss on Saturday.

 
THE SCORE

Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks (4-14; 0-2) – 69
North Carolina Central Eagles (8-12; 1-2) - 88
 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

 
The rims seemed to shrink for the Hawks throughout the first half as UMES managed just five field goals and shoot 19.2 percent in the opening 20 minutes of play. While the Hawk shooters struggled, the Eagles made over 57% of their shot attempts and used a mid-half 22-1 run to claim full control, 54-17, at half.

 
NCCU remained comfortably ahead for the majority of the second half. A few late scoring runs by the Hawks including a 9-0 run to end the contest narrowed the final margin to nineteen, 88-69.
 
 
BY THE NUMBERS

 
The Hawks shot below 20% in the first half before finishing the game with a 43% shooting performance (22-51). NCCU was an efficient 55% from the field (30-55) including 11 makes from three-point range.

 
10 NCCU players logged points on Saturday including a pair of 23 point performances from Keishon Porter and Po'Boigh King.

 
After being limited in the first half, MEAC leading scorer Ketron "KC" Shaw finished the game with 15 points along with five rebounds. His brother Kyrell Shaw also had 15 points along with four assists. Cardell Bailey added 12 points and Christopher Flippin had 10 points.

 
UMES committed 17 turnovers and were outscored, 30-15, off of giveaways.

 
UMES head coach Cleo Hill, Jr. played at NCCU and is a member of the Eagles' 1000 point scoring club.

 
NCCU is now 9-1 against UMES over the last 10 games played dating back to the 2019-2020 season.

 
 
COMMENTS FROM COACH CLEO HILL, JR
 

"The Eagles came to play tonight and we weren't ready to match them. I thought Coach Moten did an excellent job with his guys and they executed perfectly."

 
"We did come ready to go in the first half. I thought we did a better job of competing in the second half but ultimately it was not enough."

 
"They were extremely hot from the field in the first half and I thought we did not do a good enough job of closing out and putting up enough resistance to get them out of their shooting rhythm."

 
"While it is great to see some familiar faces coming back to my alma mater, this is not the result we wanted. Now, we have a short turnaround against a South Carolina State team that is playing very well. We will go over tonight's game and review our scouting report. Our focus is to be ready to go on Monday."
 
 
 
 
NEXT UP

The Hawks will be on the road at South Carolina State on Monday night.