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ORONO – The first half belonged to Maine senior Terry Hunt.
The second belonged to Vermont sharpshooter Spencer Eisenmenger.
And the last five seconds were unexpectedly the sole possession of Catamount freshman David Roach.
Roach took a pass from Tyler Murphy on the fly in the backcourt, dribbled furiously up the left wing, and unleashed a 23-footer that fell through the net as the buzzer sounded and gave the Catamounts a 79-76 come-from-behind win over the Black Bears in front of 967 fans at Alfond Arena Thursday night.
Maine dropped to 7-14, 4-7 in America East play. Vermont, which also rallied back from 16 points down to the Bears with 3:50 to go two years ago in Orono, improved to 10-8, 3-7.
Roach’s shot marked the completion of a patiently deadly rally, and was the first time Vermont led in the second half.
“We wanted the ball in David’s hands,” Vermont coach Tom Brennan said of his 5-foot-11 playmaker. “We felt that it was enough time that he could go down and get in the lane, and then make something happen.”
Roach didn’t quite get to the lane, but he did make something happen.
“At first, I think it was [John] Gordon, he almost blocked it,” Roach said of the game-winner. “But once it got through I was pretty sure it was going in.”
Roach finished with 11 points and seven assists in 33 minutes of play.
Hunt was immense in the first half, conecting on nine of 13 field goal attempts and scoring 22 of his 28 points before intermission.
But in the second half, Eisenmenger jacked in five 3-pointers en route to a 19-point night, sophomore Craig Peper added 14 of his team-high 23 points, and the Catamounts were able to whittle away at a deficit that reached 16 points with 9:13 left.
“I felt that we tried to do all the right things,” Maine coach John Giannini said. “They made shots, they got critical rebounds, they made their free throws, and we didn’t.”
Sophomore Gordon heated up for Maine, hitting for 14 of his 20 points after the break, but the Black Bears weren’t able to hold off the Catamounts because of some timely Vermont shooting and some poor success from their own free throw line.
Maine’s Allen Ledbetter (15 points) missed five of six attempts from the line over a 1:30 span with less than five minutes to go, before dropping in two to give the Bears a 76-74 lead with 45.4 seconds to go.
UVM tied it with 27.2 seconds to go when freshman Tyler Murphy, who had only attempted eight free throws all year, was inserted as a shooting substitute for 52-percent shooter Craig Maurer after Maurer banged his elbow while falling to the floor during a tangle with Dade Faison. Murphy calmly drained both shots.
“He was our choice,” Brennan said of Murphy. “I can’t say that I was disgusted that [Maurer’s] arm was hurt.”
After a pair of timeouts, Maine ran the clock down to 10 seconds before Gordon drove toward the hoop. He lost control of the ball while nearing traffic at the foul line and fumbled it into Vermont hands. UVM called timeout to set up Roach’s game-winning gallop.
Ramone Jones pitched in with 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists from his guard slot for Maine, while Faison dished out six assists.
Erik Nelson, the Catamounts’ leading scorer, had 11 points but only two rebounds while playing a foul-plagued 26 minutes.
Catamounts 79, Black Bears 76
Vermont (10-8) Maine men (7-14)
Name G AG F AF TP Name G AG F AF TP
Carberry 3 10 0 0 8 Gordon 6 9 3 3 20
Murphy 1 8 2 2 5 Thibodeau 0 1 0 1 0
Peper 10 13 2 2 23 Hunt 11 24 2 2 28
Steele 1 1 0 0 2 Thompson 0 1 0 0 0
Roach 4 10 0 1 11 Faison 0 0 0 0 0
Maurer 0 2 0 0 0 Jones 4 6 1 5 10
Eisenmeng’r 6 13 1 2 19 Thomas 0 1 0 0 0
Nelson 3 4 5 9 11 Long 1 1 1 2 3
Chotkowski 0 1 0 1 0 Ledbetter 4 11 7 12 15
Dejong 0 2 0 0 0
Totals 28 64 10 17 79 Totals 26 54 14 25 76
Vermont 29 79
Maine 40 76
3-pt. goals: Vermont (13-31): Carberry 2-5, Murphy 1-3, Peper 1-1, Roache 3-7, Maurer 0-1, Eisenmenger 6-12, Dejong; Maine (10-18): Gordon 5-6, Thibodeau 0-1, Hunt 4-10, Jones 1-1
Attendance: 967
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