El Shakery Records 20 Points, 10 Rebounds in Quarterfinal Loss at UMBC

Saturday, March 7

Baltimore, Md.

1 PM

University of New Hampshire

9-21,5-11America East

UMBC

22-8,14-2America East

New Hampshire

UMBC

Photo by: Gail Burton

El Shakery Records 20 Points, 10 Rebounds in Quarterfinal Loss at UMBC

3/7/2026 4:33:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

BALTIMORE – Redshirt sophomore forward Belal El Shakery (Alexandria, Egypt) recorded a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds but the University of New Hampshire men's basketball team was defeated 84-69 by UMBC in an Air Force Reserve 2026 Men's Basketball Playoffs quarterfinal game Saturday afternoon at Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena.

El Shakery netted 20+ points and recorded a double-double for the second consecutive game.

Junior guard Jack Graham (Smithfield, R.I.) scored 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting that included 4 of 7 from 3-point range. Sophomore forward John Squire (Sausalito, Calif.) pulled down eight rebounds and scored six points. Junior guard KiJan Robinson (Apopka, Fla.) finished with 10 points and Davide Poser (Veneto, Italy), another junior guard, had a game-high four assists.

UMBC was led by Ace Valentine's game-high 23 points.

UNH, the No. 8 tourney seed by virtue of a 5-11 conference record, ends the season at 9-21 overall. UMBC, the top seed with a 14-2 record, advances to the semifinals with a 22-8 record.

FIRST HALF

UMBC scored the first 10 points of the game before Tyler Bike (Merrimack, N.H.) made a pull-up jumper from the foul line at 17:04.
El Shakery made a driving layup on the next possession to trim the deficit to 10-4 at 16:20.
UMBC scored the next eight points to open an 18-4 advantage at 11:38.
UNH sliced into a 16-point deficit with three consecutive layups by Squire, Graham and Comeh Emuobor(Raleigh, N.C.) to pull within 26-16 at 5:25.

The Wildcats went on a 12-0 run the last three minutes of the half to close within 34-30. Graham fueled the rally with back-to-back 3-pointers at 2:05 and 1:25.

SECOND HALF

UMBC opened the second half with a 7-1 run to surge out to a double-digit lead, 41-31, at 17:56.
Graham made back-to-back jumpers and El Shakery followed with a layup as the 'Cats inched within 41-37 at 14:31.
The Retrievers responded with an 11-0 run to extend the advantage to 52-37 at 11:38.
UMBC's lead fluctuated between 12 and 17 points until Jah'Likai King and DJ Armstrong hit consecutive 3's at 7:34 and 7:15 to push the margin to 21 points, 70-49.

The teams exchanged scores until the final 2:30, when Bike made a 3-pointer at 2:10 and El Shakery's layup closed the scoring with 21 seconds to play to narrow the gap to 15 points.

UNH NOTEBOOK

El Shakery, who was named to the All-Conference Third Team on the eve of the quarterfinals, had two games this season with 20+ points.
He finished with 10+rebounds 10 times and led the team with eight double-doubles.
This was the 17^th time this season Graham made multiple 3-pointers in a game – the third time he hit four 3's.
Poser made two 3-pointers to mark his 16^th game of the season with multiple 3's.

This was UNH's 43^rd appearance in the conference tourney and 35^th quarterfinal game.

GAME NOTEBOOK

UNH outscored UMBC 30-26 in the paint.
The Retrievers has a 31-30 rebounding edge. The 'Cats had a 7-4 advantage on the offensive glass but UMBC had a 7-6 edge in second-chance points.