Hawks Soar To Homecourt Victory

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore Men’s Basketball team got a well-deserved win Tuesday at home. The Hawks beat UMBC 65-52, improving their record to 3-6 on the year.

The Hawks remained confident throughout the game, coming off of a win on the road against Fordham (72-66), which showed in the defensive energy early in the first half of this game.  The momentum that the Hawks carried with them from their last outing helped get them to a twenty point lead early in the game with major contributions from senior guard Devon Walker as well as junior guard Devin Martin.  Walker hit two pivotal threes igniting the team to force six turnovers from the Retrievers which led to easy fast break points.  Martin scored 11 points on 3-5 shooting, all three makes coming from beyond the arc.  The Hawks ended the half shooting 51.9% controlling the paint which allowed opportunities behind the three for them.

After the break the Retrievers came out on a 7-0 run cutting the large lead down to 14 points.  Guard, Wayne Sparrow came up with two steals that led to a dunk and a momentous and-one. The Hawks responded with a 10-2 run led by Michael Myers who dominated inside throughout the game, grabbing 8 rebounds, four coming off of the offensive glass.  Though UMBC improved from 28% shooting in the first half to 48% in the second, they never cut the lead down below 13 points.

The Hawks controlled the glass 40 to 25, showing their dominance.  Along with Myers, the top performers from the Hawks all got on the glass and maintained possessions to give the team more opportunities to execute their patient offense,  Martin(4), and  Walker(5).  UMES shot efficiently from the free-throw line on the night at 73.3% whereas UMBC only shot 43.5%.

The Hawks will need to keep up the momentum and defensive intensity from their last two games when they face off against North Carolina Central, last year’s MEAC champion, December 5, Friday night at 7:00 p.m. at the W.P. Hytche Athletic Center.