UMES’s Season Comes To End With Upset Loss To Hampton

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore saw their best season in over 40 years come to an end Thursday with a 76-71 upset loss to Hampton.

The Hawks would trade buckets early on, as senior guard Ishaq Pitt would find a rhythm offensively. Hampton would stay out on shooters defensively, forcing the point guard to try and score himself, and he would take advantage. The Hawks though, would find themselves in foul trouble in a hurry after missing block outs, and fouling to prevent lay ins. Mike Myers, Dominique Elliott and Devin Martin would all pick up their second foul before the half.

The second half couldn’t have started out any worse for the Hawks. Myers quickly picked up his third foul as Hampton’s lead grew to 13. With 5 minutes left though, UMES would go on a run. Elliott would go to work on the block scoring a few buckets and finally the Hawks would knock down a couple triples. The deficit would get all the way down to just 1. With under a minute left, the Pirates would rush the ball up the court and Myers would draw a huge charge foul underneath to prevent the bucket. Then on the other end with 30 second left, Pitt would get fouled on a back door and head to the line with a chance to score the go-ahead points. Pitt however would miss both and the Hawks would be forced to foul. The Pirates would connect on their pair of free throws to push the lead back up to 3 with 20 seconds left, giving UMES 1 last chance. They would bring the ball up the court and run an action on the right wing with Pitt and Martin. Martin would be smothered, and forced to give the ball back to Pitt who would drive but get blocked with 10 seconds left. UMES would foul and the Pirates would ice the game at the line.

Pitt finished the game with a career high 19 points to go along with 7 rebounds and 6 assists, Mark Blackmon would add 14 points off the bench while Elliott finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds.