ORONO – Even when the University of Maine men’s basketball team gets the shots it wants, the sporadic-shooting Black Bears aren’t guaranteed a victory.

Sunday afternoon, the Bears often settled for the shots Drexel wanted them to take, while the Dragons got plenty of open shots.

Drexel dictated the action with tight, man-to-man defense and breezed to a comfortable lead while handling Maine 73-52 in North Atlantic Conference action at Alfond Arena.

A season-high crowd of 2,316 watched as Drexel coach Bill Herrion notched his 100th career victory. League-leading Drexel improved to 15-3, 11-1 in the NAC. Maine, which had a four-game win streak snapped, is now 11-8, 8-4 in league play.

“I think what today’s win was all about for us was defense,” Herrion said. “We thought a real key today was not to let [John] Gordon get a lot of open looks and try to make some other people beat us.”

Drexel built its win around the ability to shut down Gordon, Casey Arena, Matt Moore and Ramone Jones on the perimeter. They shot a combined 3-for-24 from the field as the Bears struggled to a 19-percent shooting effort in the first half.

Gordon, who was 2-for-8 from the floor, finished with six points. He’s Maine leading scorer with a 14.8 per-game average.

Jeff Myers, Cornelius Overby and Mike DeRocckis applied the defensive pressure on the outside, forcing the hosts to try their luck in the paint, where the shots didn’t come much easier.

“They were on you every time you’d come out,” Jones said. “They really stretched their defense. We want to pass the ball around to get a good shot, but they were playing such tough defense that the person with the ball held the ball for a long time and couldn’t get the ball swung as easily as we wanted to.”

Drexel, which has allowed only 66.1 points per game, ranks seventh in the country in field-goal-percentage defense at .380.

Maine coach Rudy Keeling said his team had ample offensive opportunities early, but didn’t take advantage. The Bears missed 10 shots within eight feet of the basket in the first half.

“It’s very tough to win a game when you don’t shoot the ball,” Keeling said. “We got a ton of easy shots in the first half and didn’t make them, and didn’t make our foul shots, and dug ourselves just a huge hole, and couldn’t get out.”

Malik Rose, a 6-foot-7 powerhouse, led Drexel with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Overby contributed 19 points and four assists and Myers 17 points and five assists.

Greg Logan paced Maine with 12 points and 15 rebounds and Ramone Jones provided 10 points and good defense. Matt Moore scored 10 points, while Casey Arena dished off for eight assists.

The Dragons torched the Bears with a pair of 12-point scoring runs during the first 10 1/2 minutes while racing to a 25-point advantage. Rose and Overby scored four points each in the first spurt as Drexel took a 12-4 lead with less than six minutes gone.

Logan and Don Long made close-range baskets for Maine, but the Dragons got hot from outside. Myers, DeRocckis, Overby and Chuck Guittar hit 3-pointers during a span of 3:19 as Drexel made it 24-8.

Having established its balance, Drexel was able to score inside and outside. Maine went six minutes without a field goal and the Dragons rattled off a 9-0 run that pushed the lead to 37-12 with 1:43 left.

“Our perimeter shooting has been great all year, and it really helps me because teams can’t double and triple down as easily as they did in the past,” said Rose, who became DU’s all-time leading rebounder with 1,328.

Maine trailed by as many as 32 points before making a determined charge in the second half. Moore scored five straight points amidst a 10-0 flurry that trimmed Drexel’s lead to 62-46 with 5:51 to play.

However, the Dragons worked the clock and used the foul line to fend off the challenge.

Dragons 73, Black Bears 52

Drexel men (15-3) Maine (11-8)

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

Rose 8 12 4 6 20 Gordon 2 8 2 2 6

Gaffney 0 0 1 3 1 Arena 1 9 1 4 3

DeRocckis 3 5 2 3 9 Keeling 0 0 0 0 0

Neisler 0 2 2 2 2 Moore 4 10 1 1 10

Frey 0 1 0 0 0 Thompson 0 2 0 0 0

Myers 5 10 5 7 17 Collins 1 3 1 2 3

Hudgins 0 0 0 0 0 Jones 4 13 2 3 10

Overby 5 9 7 8 19 Reynolds 1 1 0 0 2

Riley 0 1 0 0 0 Thomas 2 3 0 0 4

Fischer 0 0 0 0 0 Long 1 2 0 0 2

Guittar 2 10 0 0 5 Ledbetter 0 5 0 2 0

Logan 5 11 2 4 12

Totals 23 50 21 29 73 Totals 21 67 9 18 52

Drexel 39 73

Maine 17 52

3-pt. goals: Drexel (6-17) DeRocckis 1-2, Myers 2-4, Overby 2-3, Guittar 1-8; Maine (1-10) Gordon 0-4, Arena 0-2, Moore 1-1, Jones 0-3