(Dover, Del.) – Despite maintaining a five-point lead after two quarters, the Delaware State women's basketball team (7-16, 4-6 MEAC) saw its halftime advantage disperse in the third quarter Saturday afternoon at home, thanks to the UMES Hawks (7-16, 4-6 MEAC) scoring 30 points on 67 percent (12-of-18) shooting on their way to pulling out a 70-61 win.

With this loss, DSU dropped its third consecutive game for the third time this season, in addition to moving to 1-4 against the Hawks in its last five tries. UMES, meanwhile, snapped a two-game slide to pick up its first win since defeating Howard at home on Feb. 1, 62-59.

The Hawks' third quarter outburst featured the high-scoring backcourt duo of Moengaroa Subritzky (15) and Ciana Byrom (11) combing for 26 points on 83 percent (10-for-12) shooting.  The tandem also shot 50 percent (4-of-8) from beyond the arc, highlighted by Subritzky hitting a trio of treys.  DSU, on the other hand, actually led by nine during the quarter, thanks to guard N'Kayah Kersey draining her lone 3-pointer of the afternoon at the 7:09 mark.  Unfortunately for the Lady Hornets, the Hawks closed the period on an 8-0 run to make it a 56-49 ball game, capped off by a Subritzky layup with 17 seconds left.

DSU managed to battle back to make it a 60-55 contest with Kersey hitting a scooping layup at the 4:41 mark.  Nevertheless, UMES responded by limiting DSU to just six points the rest of the way, in addition to doing just enough on the offensive end to secure the victory.

At game's end, Subritzky poured in 16 of her game-high 21 points (7-of-16) in the second half, whereas Byrom dropped 18 of her 20 points (7-of-13) in the second stanza as well. For DSU, Kersey (5-of-8) and guard Mikah Aldridge (5-of-16) scored 14 points each, whereas forward NaJai Pollard was held to just eight points (3-of-8) and seven boards in 21 minutes of action before fouling out. 

Coming up, the Columbia Blue & Red will be back in action this Monday night (5:30 p.m.) on the road against Coppin State. Last season, CSU swept the season series with a pair of double-digit victories over the Hornets.

Stingers

UMES won the battle on the boards (49-37), thanks to veteran Alexis Udoji's game-high 11 rebounds… DSU shot 36 percent (22-of-61) from the field, while UMES went 26-of-65 (.400) for the game… The Hornets went 10-for-11 (.909) from the charity stripe, whereas UMES went just 11-for-26 (.423)… UMES's Alexus Hicks scored 11 of her team's 16 points off the bench… NaJai Pollard totaled a game-high four blocks… DSU is now 5-1 this season when leading at halftime… The Hornets are now 49-37 all-time against UMES.