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March 7, 2005
Richmond, Va. - The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) men's basketball team headed into their first ever Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Basketball Tournament under Head Coach Larry Lessett. The result was not what they were looking for. The number 11 seed Fighting Hawks took on the number six seed Bears of Morgan State University (MSU) and fell by a score of 77-56. Corey Brown kept the Hawks close the entire first half scoring ten points in the first ten minutes on four of six shooting. Ryan Leak made his first start in several games and took the ball to the basket drawing a foul and sinking both throws. That, unfortunately, was the only way he could get the ball to drop as he went 0-5 in the opening ten minutes. The Hawks of UMES (2-26) took the lead, 20-19 on a basket that Leak got to drop on an offensive rebound. The Bears answered right back on a put back by Aaron Andrews and a three by Sam Brand. At the under four minute media timeout Morgan State (14-15) led UMES 24-20. After the resumption of play Leak went to work. With the shot clock winding down Leak went to the basket ad nailed a fade-away jumper to cut the lead to two. Morgan answered back with a three pointer but Jareem Dowling put the lead back to three with a strong move to the basket. After a missed jumper on the other end Brown got fouled and went to the line shooting one and one. He sank only the first making the score 27-25. With just ten seconds left the Bears looked to increase the lead but Brown took it away from Timothy Mathis and ran it ahead to Aly Samabaly who missed the lay-up on a contested shot. The follow by Jamar Taylor was too late and the Bears led at the break by two.
Corey Brown was the spark offensive and defensively for UMES in the half. "We tried to throw different things at them by changing our defense up with many different sets. They are used to playing a fast game and we slowed them down in the first half," he said. To start the second half the Hawks came out looking for the same intensity. They found it, just slowly. For two and a half minutes the teams couldn't score. Then they both caught fire. Jareem Dowling drained a three point to give the Hawks their first lead of the half, 28-27. Brand answered for Morgan with a long two, they went up 29-28. Brown answered with a pair of free throws and UMES led 30-29. Mathis then hit another jumper and MSU led with 16 minutes to play. After a miss by Tim Parham Mathis converted a lay-up and then a quick Bear steal got Christopher Grant a lay-in. Coach Lessett was forced to call a time-out with the Bears up 35-30a at the 15:23 mark. The Bears kept clawing and the Hawks kept fighting. After a lay-in by Timothy Berkley, Parham went to work. After misses by Dowling and Leak the big man pulled down an offensive board, put it back in and drew a foul, converting the three-point play. With the lead at three Morgan got a three, this one by Grant and they were up 40-3 with the clock at 12:38. After a Samabaly miss, Joseph Mclean drained a long two and Morgan had their biggest lead, nine, 42-33 and UMES called another time-out. They were looking for a basket and instead turned it over and Grant hit another three. UMES didn't stop, down 43-33 Brown went to the rack, made it and drew a foul. After the under 12 timeout Brown missed his free throw and the Morgan lead was back to 45-35. The Hawks got the ball back but a missed fade-away by Brown turned into a foul on the rebound by Dowling. On the pursuing passion Dowling picked up his third foul as Andrews made the lay-up and converted the free throw. Ronald Timus got in the act on a bullet from Andrews after Leak turned it over and it was 50-35 with a little over ten minutes to play. At the 9:40 mark Morgan State was on a 23-5 run. Grant made the first free throw after being fouled by Samabaly. It was 53-35 when Parham worked hard to get two offensive boards and a put-back. Morgan began to take over in the paint. Andrews got fouled and made one of two but Morgan controlled the boards again and Brand stuck in the dagger with another three. With just under eight minutes to play the Bears were in firm control, up 57-37. Berkley was on the oop end of Brand alley and it made 61-41 with six minutes and twenty seconds to play. Brown put UMES back on the board with his career high 23rd point. He then made the and one free throw and it was 65-46 with 5:25 remaining. Shondale Robinson got on the board late to make it a 97-48 game but Brand answered back slipping out on the inbound and scoring an easy two. Then he hit his fourth three of the game and gave Head Coach Butch Beard his biggest lead, 24, 72-48 with 3:53 to play. It was all Bears the rest of the way with steals and dunks, running the lead all the way to 75-48. Brown picked up another three pointer, giving him one three-pointer shy of 30 for the game. With only 2:47 left Brown would be fouled and sink the back end of two to match the most points scored by a Hawks this season. He wouldn't stop there making a runner with just under two minutes recording his 30th point of the season. The Hawks cleared the bench after that shot inserting Taylor, Tal Cohen and seldom used guard Stephen Kallman, who replaced Brown. With reserve players on the floor for both teams the time would expire after a Robinson jump hook, giving Morgan the 77-56 win. The Bears outscored the Hawks by 19 in the second half. "I want to thank my players who gave me a lot tonight and never quit. I think all of you who will write an article should write about how hard we worked. My guys played like men tonight and I am very very proud of my basketball team," said Lessett in the post game press conference. Brown finished with 30 points leading all scorers. He also had six rebounds. Parham, the MEAC rebounding leader, led all rebounders with 11, he added eight points. Jareem Dowling, playing in his final game as a Hawk finished with eight points and three rebounds before fouling out. Leak added six and Robinson four to round out the Hawk scoring. The 30 points by Brown is not only a career high but the most points scored by a UMES player this season. Morgan State placed four players in double figures with Brand leading the way with 18. Grant had 14, Mathis 11 and Andrews 12 points. Andrews got a double double pulling down 11 boards. Berkley had eight points and nine rebounds. MSU shot 65.5 percent in the second half, 53.4 for the game. That compared to 34.5 percent for the Hawks. Morgan won the battle on the boards, 41-38. The loss ends the season for UMES as they look to build on some positives and bring in some fresh faces. |
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