DURHAM, N.C. - The University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team wasn't able to control the paint as they lost, 73-71, to North Carolina Central Wednesday night at McDougald-McLendon Gym. 

The Hawks were outscored, 36-20, in the paint and also outrebounded, 38-25.  The Eagles registered 17 offensive rebounds to UMES' nine.

Redshirt sophomore Hillary Haley led the Hawks in scoring with 16 points and added in four rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal.  Junior Kevin White continues his stellar season of dishing out assists as he had seven on the night in addition to 10 points and four steals while sophomore Tyler Hines led UMES with seven rebounds.

With the non-conference loss, the Hawks fall to 7-17 overall and 3-11 on the road.  NCCU improves to 6-20 on the season.

The Eagles put the pressure on early as they started the game with a full-court press, which caused problems for UMES.  Head coach Frankie Allen didn't like what he saw coming out of the gates and called for a 30-second timeout at the 17:47 mark.  After the timeout, Hines quickly zipped a pass across the paint for Haley, who put it up for two, to make the score 5-4, with NCCU leading.

The Eagles would go up by nine before White hit a smooth jumper to tie the game at 15-15 at the 11:31 mark.  Just over 30-seconds later, the Hawks took their first lead of the game off of a three-pointer from senior Roland Dunston.

Read more at UMESHawks.com.