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Feb. 20, 2006
Princess Anne, MD - The Lady Hawks basketball program seems to be fascinated with eight seasons ago. It has been eight seasons since a University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) Basketball Team was .500 in the month of February; the same goes for being over that mark. It has also been eight seasons since a Lady Hawks team defeated an opponent by 30 points or more. Tonight, they did just that, knocking off the Lady Wildcats of Bethune-Cookman College (BCC) 87-50. UMES (12-11, 9-5 MEAC) jumped out to an early 6-0 lead only to see a fiery Wildcats team go on a 13-1 run to take a 13-7 advantage. Then UMES woke up, going on a 30-11 run of their own and never looking back. Freshman Tiffany Reid led all scorers with 15, while Kristi Veltkamp tallied a double double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Toni Kennedy and Daynese Stowe had 12 points each, a new career high for Stowe. Brittany Adkins, Jasmine Speed, Almalika Lemon, Adrienne Brown, Reid and Stowe all set or matched career highs in scoring, making it six UMES players setting the mark. The game also marked the return of senior forward Jamila Griffith who had seen action in only eight games this season. Griffith has recovered from an internal injury and posted two points and three rebounds in limited action. "Having her back is huge," said Head Coach Fred Batchelor. "She may not have a lot of numbers in tonight's box, but her presence and attitude bring so much to this team, you saw evidence of that tonight."
Danetta Simpson led BCC (4-19, 3-12 MEAC) with 13 points while Keturah Newkirk had ten. Newkirk and Kennedy were supposed to battle it out behind the arc as the game pitted two of the top ten three-point shooters in the country head to head. Newkirk leads the nation while Kennedy is sixth as of a week ago. The battle wasn't to be as both only went two for ten behind the arc. UMES led by 13 at the break. BCC quickly cut it to ten on a three-pointer by Newkirk but they would get no closer. The Lady Hawks would dominate the paint with 25 second half rebounds to the Wildcat's 12. Lay-ups became commonplace for the Lady Hawks as they scored the next ten points on shots under the basket. They would go on a commanding 23-6 run forcing Wildcat Head Coach Francis Simmons to take a timeout with ten minutes to play. The timeout would have no effect as UMES, up 27, would get a three from Kennedy to take a 30 point lead and would extend it to as many as 40 with just under two minutes to play. "It was a total team effort tonight," said Batchelor. "We showed how we can play inspired basketball and what we are capable of when we are at our best, we even made free throws tonight," he added. The Lady Hawks have not won by 30 or more points since the 1997-1998 season when they defeated Colgate on the road by 31, 96-64. In fact, the Lady Hawks have only posted four victories of 30 or more points since the 1990-1991 season. Since the Colgate win, one came in 91-92 when UMES won at Bowie State 102-50 while the other two came in the 90-91 season (92-55 over then Salisbury State and 101-32 at Lincoln). UMES next takes on red-hot Morgan State Lady Bears on Saturday, February 25, 2006 at 2:00 pm in the W.P. Hytche Center. That game is also Take A Kid to the Game Day where all children are admitted free with a paying adult. |
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