Princess Anne, MD--James "J-Bird matched his career high of 33 points but it was not enough to offset the career high of 34 points by Troy Snyder, 25 coming during the second half as Maryland Eastern Shore came from behind to defeat Howard, 87-73 in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference men's game at W.P Hytche Athletic Center.

The Bison (6-20, 4-7 in the MEAC) appeared to be in control when they expanded a 39-28 halftime lead to its biggest lead at 50-30 with 16:32 remaining.  Daniel did most of the damage, tallying 23 points on 7 of 12 shooting from the floor.  Teammate Prince Okoroh came out of a three-game scoring slump and added eight points as Howard shot 59 percent (13 of 22).

"I thought that  we had as good a 30 minutes as we have had all season," said Howard Coach Kevin Nickelberry.  "We seem to have a lot of confidence, but I think that there is a difference between confidence and execution and that is where we got hurt in the second half."

But the Hawks (4-18, 2-8 in the MEAC) climbed their way back in the game as Snyder began to take charge, scoring from mid-range, long range and power moves that put the Bison post players in foul trouble.  But it was not all Snyder as the UMES bench made some key baskets during the second half surge.  Devon Walker came off the bench to score all nine of his points while Mark Blackmon and Louis Bell combined for 10 of their team's points in the second stanza.  The UMES bench outscored, Howard, 30-7.

"We have to learn to close out these kind of games," said Nickelberry. "We missed those dunks and we missed some free throws and you can't do that in games like this.  You have to give them credit though.  Troy Snyder had the game of his life and I thought that after the altercation, they were more aggressive going to the basket and drawing fouls."  The game was stopped midway through the second half for a minor skirmish between the players with a UMES player being ejected.

The young Bison aided the Hawks cause by missing at least six wide open dunks that would have kept the pressure on.

Daniel, who logged 40 minutes, appeared to tire in the second half as he missed six of the eight shots that he took, including one of six from three-point range.

"He has been battling the flu for the past two days and I wanted to take him out, but we could not afford to," explained Nickelberry, of his freshman guard.  "He battled but you could see he was struggling at times."

Okoroh tallied 15 while Tyler Stone contributed eight points and seven rebounds before fouling out, something that did not go unnoticed by Nickelberry.

"Tyler fouling out was huge," declared Niickelberry.  "He was playing physical inside, working the boards and he is a key to our press.".

Snyder added 14 rebounds , Hakeem Baxter added 22 and Bell scored 15 off the bench.