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ORONO – It took 30 minutes Saturday night for the University of Maine to initiate its preferred, fast-paced style against Youngstown State from Ohio.
Once the Black Bears achieved a quicker tempo with their full-court pressure and rebounding, they ran away from the Penguins. Maine stifled Youngstown State with an 18-2 run late in the game while pulling away for a 70-54 victory at Alfond Arena.
A crowd of 1,029 fans turned out as coach Rudy Keeling’s Bears ended a successful first semester at 4-2. Maine is idle until a Dec. 30 game against Brown in Portland.
Maine’s swarming 2-2-1 full-court press took its toll in the last nine minutes. While the Bears managed only three steals during the surge, Youngstown began to exhibit fatigue.
“It’s been a long time since a team has just physically dominated us like that,” said Youngstown coach Dan Peters. “The press definitely bothered us, no question about that. I thought we were tentative the whole game against the thing.”
The Penguins, who played man-to-man defense all the way, began hurrying their shots and watching Maine dominate the rebounding action. Maine outrebounded YSU 38-30, including a 24-11 margin in the second half.
“Where they really hurt us was on the glass,” Peters said. “They were just relentless. They got every loose ball and their dribble penetration really hurt us badly.”
Despite Maine’s press, Youngstown dictated a half-court pace for most of the contest. The 2-2 Penguins outrebounded the Bears 17-13 in the first half and shot 56 percent from the field to keep Maine from running off misses.
Ramone Jones, the Bears’ defensive stopper, helped get Maine running in the second half. The Penguins led 46-45 with 9:13 left when Jones made the first of back-to-back, fast-break layups off John Gordon feeds to give Maine the lead for good.
Gordon, who scored only two first-half points, got into the flow with a 19-foot jumper off a Greg Logan steal, but Matt McMurray scored YSU’s first field goal in almost six minutes to make it a three-point game with 7:03 left.
“I have faith in our team that we wear teams down,” said Casey Arena, who led Maine with 16 points and six assists. “That’s what I think we did tonight again. I don’t think many teams in the country are going to press for 40 minutes.”
Chris Collins added inside muscle, taking the ball to the hoop twice and coming away with two free throws. Gordon canned a 13-footer to push Maine’s lead to 55-48, then Arena muscled in a shot from the lane and Collins hit two foul shots to give the hosts a 59-48 advantage with 3:59 to play.
“I thought a big reason we won that game was they stopped getting the ball to their main shooters,” Keeling said. “I think that was because of our pressure.”
The Penguins, who had averaged 13.5 turnovers, committed 24 in the face of Maine’s scrappy defense.
Gordon scored seven of Maine’s last 11 points, hitting five of six free throws, en route to a game-high 16.
“When I came in in the second half, I felt a lot more comfortable just going out and playing my game,” said Gordon, who was 1-for-4 in the first half.
Collins and Logan were relentless inside, combining for 13 points and 14 rebounds. Their efforts offset Allen Ledbetter’s foul trouble and the limited availability of Don Long, who had the flu.
Rahsaan Thompson gave the Bears 10 strong minutes, providing a lift late in the first half, and Matt Moore added seven points.
Jones finished with eight points, all in the second half, but suffered an ankle injury late in the game. Maine also was without freshman swingman Josh Nash, who is being evaluated for a tendon problem in his left ankle.
Leroy King paced YSU with 13 points and six rebounds.
The first half was played at Youngstown’s tempo. Arena tossed in seven points as the Bears jumped to an 11-3 lead, but Raber Jr. scored five straight to kick off a 13-2 run that gave the Penguins an 18-13 lead with 11:36 remaining.
Maine forged back ahead briefly as Arena fed Logan for back-to-back close-range baskets to make it 26-24. Youngstown wound up scoring the last four points of the half to lead 34-30 at the break.
Black Bears 70, Penguins 54
Maine (4-2) Youngstown State (2-2)
Name G AG F AF TP Name G AG F AF TP
Gordon 5 9 5 6 16 Handerson 0 2 0 0 0
Arena 4 9 6 10 16 Raber Jr. 4 10 1 2 10
Moore 2 4 2 2 7 Lewis 0 2 2 4 2
Thompson 1 5 2 3 4 Hunt 2 4 0 1 4
Collins 1 3 5 11 7 King 6 11 1 2 13
Jones 4 10 0 1 8 McMurray 2 3 0 0 4
McDaniel 0 0 0 0 0 Culbreth 3 9 3 4 9
Thomas 1 1 0 0 2 Easter 2 2 2 2 6
Long 0 0 0 0 0 Ethan 1 2 0 0 2
Logan 3 7 0 0 6 Green 2 2 0 0 4
Ledbetter 2 3 0 0 4
Totals 23 51 20 33 70 Totals 22 47 9 15 54
Youngstown State 34 54
Maine 30 70
3-pt. goals: YSU (1-9): Handerson 0-2, Raber Jr. 1-5, Hunt 0-1, Lewis 0-1; Mainen (4-17): Gordon 1-4, Arena 2-5, Moore 1-2, Thompson 0-1, Collins 0-1, Jones 0-4
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