Emmitsburg, Md. (November 19, 2014)--Mount St. Mary's dropped its home opener to Maryland-Eastern Shore, 53-41, on Wednesday night at Knott Arena.  Sophomore guard Byron Ashe scored a team-high nine points in the loss.

The Mount (0-2) started the game slow, falling behind 14-4 in the opening nine minutes.  After UMES scored the first four points, Chris Martin's fast-break lay-up got the Mount on the scoreboard.  After a UMES three-pointer, Chris Wray dunked home a feed from Junior Robinson to make it 7-4.  The Hawks scored the next seven points to take grab the 10-point advantage.

Gregory Graves scored five consecutive points for the Mount to cut the UMES advantage to 16-9 with 8:55 left in the first half.  UMES, however, held the Mount to just two points the rest of the half to take a 26-11 lead at the break.

Mount St. Mary's showed some resolve by scoring the first eight points of the second half to cut the deficit to 26-19.  Robinson connected on a pair of three-pointers with Khalid Nwandu chipping in a pair of free throws during the scoring spurt.

UMES countered with the next four points, but a Graves dunk and a Will Miller bucket off a steal made the score 30-23 with 14:17 remaining.

Ashe hit a three-pointer with 9:55 left, and then went 1-for-2 at the line to make it a five-point game, 36-31.    That was as close as the Mount would get as UMES buckled down on the defensive end, holding the Mountaineers to just a pair of Kristijan Krajina free throws over the next seven minutes to take a 44-33 advantage with just over two minutes remaining.

The Hawks were able to close out the win at the foul line from there.

Robinson chipped in eight points and four assists while Graves added seven points and five boards in the loss.  Martin finished with a game-high 14 points for UMES.

Mount St. Mary's shot just 29.8 percent from the field in the game, including 4-for-21 (.190) in the first half.  UMES converted 40.9 percent of its shots, and held a 38-to-26 advantage on the boards.

Mount St. Mary's returns to action on Saturday at Bucknell.  Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m.

Game Notes:  The Mount is now 1-2 all-time against UMES, losing in each of the past two seasons...Mount St. Mary's falls to 17-10 in home openers since moving to NCAA Division I in 1988-89...The Mount is now 20-6 at Knott Arena under head coach Jamion Christian.