Winston-Salem, N.C. (March 9, 2010) --- Delaware State's season long shooting woes carried into the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament, resulting in a 52-45 loss to Maryland-Eastern Shore in a first round game at the Lawrence Joel Coliseum today.
The Lady Hornets, seeded 10th in the tournament, end the season with an overall record of six wins and a school-record 24 losses. The seventh seeded Hawks (12-15) will face No. 2 Hampton in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Delaware State was 17-for-51 from the field (33.3%) in the game. The Lady Hornets were next-to-last entering the contest among the 332 Division I women's teams with a 31.2% shooting accuracy this season.
"We struggled with our shooting all season, and today was no exception," said Delaware State head coach Ed Davis, who fell to 12-9 in MEAC Tournament games in his 10 seasons at DSU. "We had some good looks at the basket in the second half, but too often couldn't finish the play. UMES deserves a lot of credit for hitting shots at critical times in the game."
Maryland-Eastern Shore's Casey Morton led all players with 19 points, including 13 in the second half. April McBride added 15 for the Hawks.
Cortney Crockett was the only Delaware State player in double figures with 13.
DSU trailed 14-10 before rallying in the first half. The Lady Hornets outscored the Hawks 14-7 over the last 6:44 of the half to take a 24-21 lead at the break.
Delaware State opened up a 30-26 lead on a lay up by Brittany Washington with 13:44 left to play.
Maryland-Eastern Shore responded with a 14-2 run, and opened up a 40-32 advantage on steal and basket by Bria Jackson with 7:22 remaining. The Lady Hornets missed six of seven shots, and committed five turnovers during the UMES spurt.
Delaware State scored the next five points to pull to within 40-37, but the Hawks responded with an 8-2 run, and grabbed a 48-39 lead on a three-point play by McBride with 1:59 left in the game.
."This was a humbling year for us," said Davis, who led the Lady Hornets to an MEAC title in 2007 and four other championship game appearances in his first seven years at DSU. "We are committed to doing what it takes to get our program back on track."
