Copeland's 27 leads Md Eastern Shore over UTEP 71-66 (Dec 21, 2016)
EL PASO, Texas (AP) Bakari Copeland scored a career-high 27 points with four of eight Maryland Eastern Shore 3-pointers and the Hawks held off UTEP 71-66 in Wednesday night's Sun Bowl Invitational game.
Trailing by nine after halftime, UTEP rallied to lead 49-48 after Paul Thomas scored six-straight points. After 11 lead changes, Derrico Peck's dunk put the Hawks back up 65-61 with 1:32 left. Thomas Rivera's jumper with 22 seconds to go made it 67-63 and the Hawks held on.
Dontae Caldwell scored 13 points and Ryan Andino added 11 for the Hawks (2-11), who were outrebounded 44-31, outscored 36-18 in the paint and shot 37.5 percent (21 for 56) from the floor.
UTEP led 11-10 on Dominic Artis' jumper, but Caldwell's basket sparked a 6-0 run to put the Hawks up 32-29 at the break after Copeland's third 3-pointer.
Matt Willms had 16 points and seven rebounds for UTEP (2-8), which lost its seventh straight.
