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Feb. 16, 2009 PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - It wasn’t a happy homecoming for the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) basketball programs, but the women and men’s track and field teams walked away from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Indoor Championships with third and fourth place respectively. Juniors April McBride and Neal Pitt earned UMES Athlete of the Week honors for the week ending February 8. McBride, of the women’s basketball team, helped the Lady Hawks to a 1-1 week with a pair of double-doubles. She had 20 points and 10 rebounds against Coppin State in a game televised by ESPNU and followed that up with a 20 point, 13 rebound performance against Howard University, giving McBride her eighth double-double of the season and fifth consecutive. Pitt, of the men’s basketball team, had two double-doubles last week as well. He went for 22 points and 12 rebounds in the 65-48 loss to Coppin State with a career-high 17 boards and 18 points in the 72-65 loss to Howard. MEN’S BASKETBALL Vincent Simpson tallied a game-high 16 as Hampton stopped a three-game losing streak with a 56-42 win over UMES at the HU Convocation Center. With the win, Hampton improved to 11-12 and 5-5 in the MEAC. Pitt had team highs of 12 points and seven rebounds in the Hawks' fifth straight loss. UMES dropped to 6-17 overall and 2-9 in conference. UMES hasn't won at Hampton since the 1999-2000 season, a 59-58 victory at the Convocation Center. Pitt was named Heritage Sports Radio Network (HSRN) Division I Player of the Week. He won a fan poll on the HSRN Website with 149 votes, 61 more than the nearest competitor, Howard's Eugene Myatt. Pitt averaged 17.6 points and 12.6 rebounds in three losses last week against Coppin State, Longwood and Howard. He shot 60 percent from the floor, connecting on 23-of-38 field goals and had a double-double Feb. 2 against Coppin with 22 points and 12 rebounds in a game televised by ESPNU. UMES junior Pitt scored 17 of his game-high 20 points in the second half as the Hawks battled back from a 13-point halftime deficit, but fell to North Carolina A&T, 70-59, at the William P. Hytche Athletic Center. The Hawks were down, 40-27, at the break before starting the second with a 12-3 run over 5:28 to get within three and eventually one at 57-56 with 3:53 to play. The Aggies, though, pulled away in the final minutes when UMES went cold from the field, missing its last five-of-six shots. With the Homecoming loss - their sixth straight overall - the Hawks dropped to 6-18 and 2-9 in the MEAC. WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
McBride extended her double-double streak to six. She led the Lady Hawks with team highs of 15 points and 11 rebounds. Tiffany Reid and Casey Morton both finished in double-digits with 12 and 10 points respectively. Despite a strong first half, the women's basketball team dropped their homecoming game to the no. 1 team in the MEAC. North Carolina A&T (NCAT) scored 35 points on turnovers to top the Lady Hawks 89-68 and sweep the series this season. Both teams shot 51-percent from the floor, but the turnovers were the deciding factor in the game. UMES committed twice as many as the Lady Aggies and ended the contest with only three offensive rebounds. McBride led the Lady Hawks with 28 points, just one off of her career high. Morton finished with 18 points and a game-high five assists. For the first time this season, UMES (10-12, 6-5 MEAC) shot nearly 60-percent from the floor in the first half.
WOMEN’S BOWLING On the positive side, the UMES Women's Bowling Team picked up eight important wins to only two losses and improved their season record to 82-26. On a down side, they didn't bowl as well as they would have liked, finishing third overall at the Capital Classic in Dover, Del. and dropping matches to no. 5 Delaware State and no. 8 Kutztown. The nation's fourth ranked team was still solid, besting most teams at the event, even topping Kutztown in round two. They started the event with team games as the hawks opened with a 921-684 win over Coppin State before the 862-1090 loss to DSU. They rebounded quickly, topping St. Peter's 953-853, #17 Adelphi 947-863 and # 19 St. Francis College 892-792. Maria Rodriguez was once again the standout for UMES, totaling 986 pins over five game, averaging 197.2. Martha Perez and Kristina Frahm were also solid, posting averages of 183.6 and 182.4 respectively. Combined the Lady Hawks produced four games over 200 with Frahm rolling a 231, Perez a 214, Rodriguez a 215 and Jamie Culbreth a team high 236. INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD Seniors Merrecia James and Celia Whyte posted the top two times in the 800 meters among MEAC competitors for the season at the Armory New Balance Invitational. James ran 2:10.95 in the event followed by Whyte's 2:12.74 to win her section. Freshman Cynthia Anais also turned in her personal best in indoor track in the 800. She ran 2:14.31. On the men's side, Thomas Keane-Dawes won his heat of the 400-meter championship in 49.42.
The UMES men's and women's track and field team won two events and took second in two others at the Vince Brown Invitational on the campus of Christopher Newport University. Senior Saisha Woodward placed first in the shot put with a mark of 13.95 meters. She also broke her own school record, set earlier this season, in the weight throw with a toss of 14.67 and was second in the event. Sophomore Danai Lendor paced the field in the 400 meters in a time of 59.09. In the men's side, Amon Kiprotich was runner-up in the 3,000 meters (8:48.57), while sophomore Peter Sang crossed sixth in 8:56.89. Woodward finished third in the women's weight throw on day one of the MEAC Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex. Woodward's mark of 14.49 meters (47 feet, 6.5 inches) led a group of the three Lady Hawks in the event and helped UMES to second place in the overall standings after the first day of competition. The UMES women's track and field team led after day two of the MEAC Indoor Track and Field Championships. The Lady Hawks won two events Friday to collect 20 of their 52 total points for the competition. UMES is in front of Hampton (44 points) and Morgan State (38), in second and third place, respectively. James paced the field in the 800 meters, winning the race in 2:15.31 and leading a group of four UMES scorers across the line. Whyte finished fourth in 2:15.87 to earn five points, followed by freshman Anais who was fifth in 2:16.24 for four points. Sophomore Eunice Jones tallied two points for a seventh-place finish in 2:17.08. The men's team sits in seventh through two days of completion with 18 total points. Norfolk State is in the top spot with 55; Morgan State (33) and Coppin State (27) round out the top three. Sophomores Kiprotich and Sang ran 3-4 in the 5,000 meters in times of 15.19.47 and 15:24.76, respectively. The pair earned 11 points in the event. The UMES men's and women's indoor track and field teams finished third and fourth, respectively, in the MEAC Indoor Track and Field Championships completed Saturday at the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex. Both UMES teams earned one event win on the final day of competition. James broke the MEAC indoor record in the mile run in 5:00.44, besting the former mark by nearly five seconds, which Hampton's Eboni White held since 2004. The men's 4x400-meter relay team of junior Allodin Fothergill, sophomores Keane-Dawes and Paul Jones-Burden and freshman Ahkeem Gauntlett took that race in 3:16.52. The 20 points helped UMES to 88 overall in the women's standings and 57 in the men's. Hampton won its seventh consecutive women's title with 148, while Norfolk State earned its four straight men's crown with 150. UPCOMING COMPETITIONS February 16 is the Pink Zone game against Norfolk State for UMES basketball. The game is to help raise breast cancer awareness and proceeds will benefit the WBCA and Save the Ta-Tas. Lady Hawk bowling travels all the way to Bessemer, Alabama for the Holiday Classic February 28 through March 1. |
