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Hawks fall to North Carolina A&T at the buzzer, 82-79

 
SUMMARY

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks were edge at the buzzer, 82-79, at North Carolina A&T on Friday night.
 

 
THE SCORE

Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks (4-10) – 79
North Carolina A&T Aggies (5-4) – 82

 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED


The UMES offense started out slow, missing their first five shots before a Dorion Staples three pointer and a Joseph Locandro basket broke the Hawk shooting woes. Down 6-5 at the 14:41 mark, Zion Obanla threw down a dunk to give the Hawks their first lead, 7-6. Obanla addd two free throws on the next Hawk possession and made a jumper on the next trip down the floor to keep the Hawks ahead, 11-9, at the 12:07 mark. UMES added to its lead with makes from Michael Teal and Chistopher Flippin to go up, 15-10 with 10:36 left in the opening half.


UMES remained ahead, 21-19, at the 7:48 mark. NC A&T came back to tie the game up, 23-23, on a Yancarlos Cueto three ball at the 6:28 mark. UMES reclaimed the lead on a Trey Brown three pointer and the teams traded baskets over the span of the next three minutes with UMES claiming a 29-28 advantage after a traditional three point play from Michael Teal with 3:51 on the clock. In a back-and-forth first half that included six ties and seven lead changes, the Hawks took a 37-33 lead into intermission thanks to free throws and a three pointer from Jaden Cooper.

 
The Hawks opened the second half by making their first four field goals on baskets from Staples, Locandro, Cooper and Teal and upped the lead to a double digit margin, 47-33, by the 17:30 mark. After the 10-0 run by the Hawks, NC A&T slowly chopped away at the UMES lead. A 6-0 run by the Aggies cut the Hawk advantage down to eight before a Obanla jumper ended the NC A&T run. Back-to-back three pointers by the Aggies sparked a 13-2 run and cut down the UMES lead to just two, 56-54, with 11:42 to go.

 
Locandro scored for UMES at the 11:30 mark to cut into the NC A&T momentum but a layin by Trent Middletown Jr. evened up the scoreboard, 58-58, by the 10:18 mark. The Aggies kept the pressure on the Hawks, taking their first lead on two Lewis Walker free throws. Lewis hit on a jumper on the next NC A&T possession to give his a team a 62-58 lead with 9:46 to go.

 
Cooper knocked down two free throws on the other end and a Teal layup tied the score back up, 62-62, with 7:52 remaining. Back-to-back trips to the free throw line and four makes gave the Aggies a four point lead. UMES came back with another Cooper basket and two free throws from Obanla to tie the game for the ninth time of the night. The teams continued to trade baskets before back-to-back makes by Obanla in the paint gave the Hawks a 72-71 lead at the 3:35 mark. After a Middleton layin, Cooper converted from beyond the arc to put UMES up by two with under two minutes to play. Walker was sent to the line and tied the game back up with two makes with 1:42 to go. After a timeout by NC A&T, Obanla found an open Trey Brown, who converted the jumper with 54 seconds left. Bryson Ogletree came back down on the other end with a three pointer as the Aggies jumped back up, 78-77.
 

After a UMES offensive rebound, Teal converted on a midrange jumper to put the Hawks up by one with 20 seconds to go. Up by one and needing a final stop, the Hawk defenders heard the sound of the referee's whistle once again in Greensboro, sending NC A&T to the line for their 37^th and 38^th free throw attempts of the night. Zamoku Weluche-Ume missed his first attempt and made the second from the line to tie up the game, 79-79 with just one second remaining in regulation. After a UMES turnover on the ensuing inbounds, the Aggies took advantage of the extra possession as Walker delivered a three-point make and a game winner at the buzzer to down the Hawks, 82-79.
 
 
 



 
BY THE NUMBERS

 
There were 14 lead changes and 11 ties during Friday night's contest between UMES and NC A&T.

 
Jaden Cooper led UMES with a season-high 20 points to go along with six rebounds. Zion Obanla finished with 18 points while Michael  Teal added 10 points and a season-high eight assists.

 
NC A&T was paced by a game-high 22 points from Lewis Walker. Walker was 17-for-18 from the free throw line.

 
UMES has dropped the last seven contests against NC A&T. The two schools routinely played each other until the Aggies departure from the MEAC after the 2019-20 season.

 
The Aggies attempted 38 free throws, converting 31 from the line. The Hawks were 13-of-17 from the line.
 



COMMENTS FROM COACH CLEO HILL, JR

 
"We did some really good things throughout the ball game tonight and will use tonight's road game as a learning experience. It's obviously a tough loss but I like how we played for the majority of the night I thought we had longer stretches of quality basketball on both ends of the floor."
 

"We made a mistake on the inbounds at the end and they took full advantage of it. I thought they made an excellent shot to win the game and we have to take this experience and be better the next time we are in that situation."

 
"Jaden (Cooper) was excellent tonight. He was solid on both ends of the floor and has been a great presence for us all year long. Zion (Obanla) gave us a lift early on and gave us good energy tonight. As we move forward, we are focusing on finding ways to keep playing good basketball for longer stretches of games. We have quite a bit to clean up but we will also emphasize the good things we did as we prepare for Sunday's game at Virginia Tech."

 
 
UP NEXT



The Hawks travel to Virginia Tech on Sunday at 12 pm.