Braves use depth to stop Knights

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Most folks in eastern Maine remember Brewer gasoline entrepreneur and motel owner Dick Stacey’s trademark TV commercial tag line of, “See Ya.”

That’s exactly what the Husson College men’s basketball team said to a scrappy University of New England squad at about the 30-minute mark in Friday night’s opening round of the Dick Stacey Invitational tournament at the Newman Gym in Bangor.

Led by senior forward Scott Brown and their tenacious pressure defense, the Braves laid some rubber, turning an iffy 10-point lead with 10 minutes to play into a 23-point cushion with four minutes to go, coasting to a 103-79 victory.

The win set up a championship game at 5 p.m. Saturday between the Braves (13-3) and the University of Maine-Presque Isle, a 115-65 winner over Notre Dame College of Manchester, N.H., in the first game. Notre Dame and UNE (3-5) will meet in the 3 p.m. consolation game.

Brown, Husson’s smooth 6-foot-4 small forward, overcame back pain that has plagued him for several weeks to score eight of his 10 points amid the 18-5 run that put the game away down the stretch. The Braves’ defense helped force three UNE turnovers and three misses amid the burst.

Brown was one of six Braves in double figures, led by junior guard Raymond Alley’s 21-point effort. Junior forward Rich Mazurek, who started in Brown’s spot, added 20 more on 9-for-12 floor shooting. Junior guard Dwayne Knowlton added 16. Junior center Tiffin Ballou dropped in 14. And senior forward Jeff Shakoor scored 13 with nine rebounds.

In other words, it was a seamless performance the Knights couldn’t overcome.

“I thought we hung in pretty well, but we couldn’t hang in long enough,” said first-year UNE head coach Ron Cote, who got 25 points from talented 6-3 junior forward Sean O’Shea, 18 from 6-2 sophomore guard Byron Spinney, and 12 from 6-5 junior center Ron McCarthy. “That’s a talented team. They’ve got an outside game, an inside game, and depth. They’ve got it all.”

Cote found himself in the old cartoon situation. Every time he went to his bench he was bringing in pistols like 5-foot-11 sophomore Chris Gallant (9 points) and 6-foot sophomore Stephane Webster.

Every time Husson coach Bruce MacGregor went to his bench, he was bringing in cannons like Brown and 6-7 senior center Jake Dragutinovic.

“They’re running people in and out,” said Cote. “The difference is they’re all the same size. We got smaller. That created some mismatches. They just wore us down.”

MacGregor nodded in agreement with Cote’s assessment. But the Husson coach said he also had to light a verbal fire under his club at halftime, at which point the Knights were hanging around, trailing 50-44.

“I was disappointed with the way we played in the first half,” said MacGregor. “They outrebounded us. We knew they had three guys who could score and they scored anyway. In the second half, we took care of business.”

After UNE’s Bill Thomas hit two free throws to pull the Knights within 50-46 at the start of the second half, Husson’s Mazurek drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key, igniting a 9-0 run that effectively killed the visitors’ momentum.

Shakoor fed Ballou for a low power move and added a tip-in and a fast-break layup to fuel Husson’s run, which produced a 59-46 lead and a UNE timeout with 17:13 to play.

The knights kept hanging around within 10 until a conventional three-point play by Ballou started Husson’s decisive 18-5 run.

Brown added a turnaround banker. Knowlton canned a 3-pointer. Ballou put back his own miss. Knowlton and Alley each hit two from the foul line. And Brown kissed in a pair of transition layups and hit a foul-line jumper, putting the Braves up 95-72.

Braves 103, Red Knights 79

Husson men U. New England

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

Alley 13 7 2 2 21 Spinney 16 7 1 1 18

Knowlton 7 5 4 4 16 Beary 9 0 1 0 0

Shakoor 10 6 2 1 13 Thomas 4 2 7 5 9

Ballou 9 6 4 2 14 McCarthy 16 5 2 1 12

Mazurek 12 9 1 1 20 O’Shea 18 10 4 3 25

Brown 8 5 1 0 10 Gallant 4 3 0 0 9

Drag’ovic 2 1 2 1 3 Webster 5 1 6 4 6

Jefferson 2 0 2 1 1 Fecteau 1 0 0 0 0

Smith 1 1 0 0 2 Peterson 0 0 0 0 0

Garay 2 1 0 0 2

Belanger 2 0 0 0 0

Sinclair 0 0 0 0 0

Rice 1 0 1 1 1

Totals 69 41 19 13 103 Totals 73 28 21 14 79

Husson 50 103

U. New England 44 79

3-pt. goals: Husson (8-17), Alley 5-10, Knowlton 2-4, Mazurek 1-2, Jefferson 0-1; UNE (9-23), Spinney 3-8, Gallant 3-4, O’Shea 2-5, McCarthy 1-3, Beary 0-3