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ORONO – There was good news and bad news amid the University of Maine basketball team’s 87-81 exhibition loss Saturday to the USA Verich Reps, a traveling squad of former men’s college players sponsored by Ohio Congressman Michael Verich.

The good news was Maine fought back from a 22-point second-half deficit to pull within three with 1:18 to play on the strength of tenacious man-to-man pressure defense and a strong inside game.

Along the way the Black Bears, led by freshman forward Tim Dennis, showed enough skill and athletic ability to keep the 521 onlookers in the Memorial Gym awake and interested.

The bad news included: Like much of last season, the Bears suffered a serious case of half-time lag. They were outscored 16-0 by the Reps in the first 4:55 of the second period to put themselves in a 59-38 hole they couldn’t dig out of. No perimeter game. We’re not talking poor outside shooting, we’re talking lack of outside shooting. The Bears went 1-for-5 on three-pointers for the game, that’s FIVE three-point attempts amid 73 shots. For the second (and final) exhibition game, Maine was shaky at the foul line. The Bears hit 12 of 21 free throws for the game (.57 percent), going 3-for-7 in the second half.

Maine’s performance left third-year head coach Rudy Keeling with the knowledge it’s going to take longer than the four days remaining before Friday night’s regular-season opener against Liberty College at the Central Florida Tournament to have his mixture of six veterans and six freshmen playing as a unit.

“It’s going to take game time,” said Keeling, who praised his team’s effort if not its execution. “We’ve got so many new people, we still have guys we don’t know how much they’re going to play or where they’re going to play.”

One guy who made a case for playing a lot was Dennis. The 6-foot-7, 186-pound rookie out of Pompton Plains, N.J., looked right at home while putting together a line featuring 16 points on 8 of 11 floor shooting, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocked shots, and a steal in 27 minutes.

“He’s played as well as we could have wanted,” said Keeling.

Other solid individual performances were turned in by 6-10 senior center Curtis Robertson, who hit 5 of 6 shots for 10 points, grabbed 4 rebounds and had 2 steals while playing 24 minutes on a tender left foot, and 6-3 junior guard Derrick Hodge, who had 16 points and 8 rebounds while playing on a slightly sprained right ankle.

Francois Bouchard added 11 points and 7 rebounds, marred by a 4-for-12 shooting night. Freshman forward Ken Barnes had 9 points and 5 rebounds in 13 minutes.

Of concern to Keeling was the slightly erratic play of junior point guard Marty Higgins, who committed 6 turnovers to go with 5 assists.

Maine’s frontcourt hustled enough and showed enough inside muscle to outrebound the Reps 50-36, 15-10 on the offensive glass.

Keeling said it was because of Maine’s display of inside strength he is not overly concerned about the lack of perimeter shooting.

“We didn’t shoot the ball very well, but our perimeter game is stronger than we showed. We’ve stressed throwing it inside. Last year, we weren’t very effective inside. This year we’re having some success, so our outside guys keep throwing it in there. I think we’ve got enough shooters. That will come,” Keeling said.

Defensively, Maine’s man-to-man limited the Reps to 42 percent floor shooting. The Bears didn’t take care of the ball, however, committing 23 turnovers to the Reps’ 19.

USA Verich Reps 87, Bears 81

Verich Reps Maine men

Name AG G AF F TP Name AG G AF F TP

Marshall 2 1 0 0 2 Higgins 10 4 0 0 9

McDole 10 6 5 4 18 Hodge 16 7 2 2 16

Stevens 19 8 6 5 22 Hillman 4 2 2 0 4

Fields 5 3 4 2 8 Bouchard 12 4 5 3 11

Chambers 5 2 0 0 4 Dennis 11 8 0 0 16

Delaney 10 5 9 7 18 Robertson 6 5 0 0 10

Feagan 7 2 1 1 5 Terrell 4 0 4 2 2

Clark 3 1 2 2 5 Hursey 1 0 2 2 2

Lyles 1 0 2 2 2 Jones 0 0 2 2 2

Smith 4 0 7 3 3 Kerry 2 0 0 0 0

McClaire 0 0 0 0 0

Barnes 7 4 4 1 9

Totals 66 28 36 26 87 Totals 73 34 21 12 81

Verich Reps 43 87

Maine 38 81

3-pt. goals: Verich Reps (5-14), McDole 2-3, Stevens 1-7, Clark 1-2, Delaney 1-1, Marshall 0-1; Maine (1-5), Higgins 1-2, Hodge 0-2, Terrell 0-1