The University of Maryland Eastern Shore Lady Hawks provided stifling defense and a hot shooting offense that equaled an 85-66 rout of visiting Western Michigan.

The UMES defense held the Broncos to just 18 first half points. Defense was never the problem, holding teams to an average of just 54 points coming into the game. The problem had been scoring.

The Lady Hawks got 21 points from Casey Morton and 20 from April McBride. Tiffany Reid, who missed one game with an injury returned to score 10 and two other Lady Hawks, Kristi Veltkamp and Brittany Adkins had nine points each.

UMES forced 22 turnovers by Western Michigan, blocked five shots and recorded 12 steals in a whale of a defensive effort. While the Broncos did play even with the Hawks in the second half, scoring 48 points, UMES got its many young freshmen playing time late in the half.

The Lady Hawk freshmen combined for 34 points.

The Broncos did edge out the Hawks on the glass, 40-36 but it was Veltkamp who looked like the 2005-2006 Defensive Player of the Year for the MEAC who led the charge with eight rebounds. She also recorded four of the five team blocks.

Western Michigan led just once, six minutes into the game when Sara Vest hit a free throw that gave them a 6-5 advantage. UMES then took the lead on a three-pointer form Queenique Tyler to give the Hawks the 8-6 lead. Tyler, who finished with six points,helped the Hawks to not look back again. They extended the margin to 19 at the break and carried the 37-18 lead into the locker room.

UMES came out on fire in the second half, running the score up to 61-26 just over six minutes into the half. They used a 22-8 run sparked by a Morton jumper and concluded with a Morton three-pointer to push the game out of reach.

Western Michigan would keep fighting, cutting the lead to 14 with 2:12 to play on a Molly Dwyer pair of free throws. The Lady Hawks pushed the lead back 19 with just a few ticks left on a Josephine McLane three-pointer, her second of the game to make it an 85-
66.

The Broncos placed three in double figures with Amanda Parker leading the attack with 15 points and Ebony Cleary adding 11 points. Dwyer had 10 points and Tiera DeLaHoussaye led the tam in rebounding with eight.

UMES will face their first road trip of the season on Thursday when they travel to the University of Delaware.

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