Hawks struggle down the stretch in loss to Delaware State
 

SUMMARY

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks pulled to within one point with under six minutes to play before fading in a 75-68 loss at Delaware State on Thursday.

 
THE SCORE

Maryland Eastern Shore (6-24; 2-12) – 68
Delaware State Hornets (16-13; 8-6) – 75

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

The Hawks struggled offensively early on. UMES committed two turnovers and were 0-for-5 from the field while being held scoreless through the first 6:39 of the game. The Hornets used the UMES offensive woes to their advantage by scoring the games first 12 points. The Hawks finally broke the scoring drought at the 12:21 mark on an Evan Johnson basket. DSU responded by making four of its next five field goals and led 21-11 with 8:08 left in the first half.
 
Three pointers by Hassan Perkins and Cardell Bailey helped trim the Hornet lead down to four, 23-19, by the 5:55 mark. After a DSU turnover, Maurice Vassel drew the foul and knocked down two free throws to cut the margin down to two. On the next UMES possession, Perkins converted the layin, drew the foul and knocked down the free throw to bring the Hawks to within one, 25-24. Delaware State responded with another three-of-four field goal run highlighted by a three ball by Robert Smith and fastbreak dunk by Kasseem Watson to give the Hornets a 38-34 lead at half.
 
The Hornets opened the second half on a 6-0 run to up the lead back to ten. A three point play by Johnson and a fastbreak dunk by Ralph Martino Jr. trimmed the lead back to four by the 14 minute mark. Watson provided a steady scoring presence for the Hornets as they remained ahead and took a 58-53 lead with under eight minutes to go.
 
A dunk and a three point play by Christopher Flippin along with another three pointer by Evan Johnson brought the Hornet lead down to just one, 61-60, at the 5:26 mark. DSU responded with a 9-0 run and UMES was never able to fully recover from that point on as the Hornets went on to the 75-68 win.

 
BY THE NUMBERS

Evan Johnson led UMES scorers with 22 points to go along with five rebounds.
 
Hassan Perkins finished with 16 points. Chris Flippin and Cardell Bailey each had eight points.
 
DSU was paced by Robert Smith's game-high 26 points. Kaseem Watson finished with 21 points while Pnce James added 12 points in the DSU win.
 
UMES committed 16 turnovers in the loss.
 
DSU led for 39:12 of the game and never trailed.
 
UMES has played the last two games without leading scorer Ketron "KC" Shaw.

 
COMMENTS FROM HEAD COACH CLEO HILL, JR

"We simply did not execute down the stretch. I thought we competed but had too many turnovers and empty possessions during the final five minutes of play."
 
"I thought Evan (Johnson) shot the ball really well tonight and we had some other guys play well in spots. We will need to be more consistent going into next week's conference tournament."
 
"Our coaching staff and players are excited for the opportunity to play in the MEAC tournament. We will await tonight's results and see who we are matched up with and begin preparing for next week."
 

UP NEXT

The Hawks await the announcements for next week's MEAC Tournament in Norfolk, Virginia. UMES enters the tournament as the eighth seed.