Balanced Black Bears halt Hens at home – again

loading...

NEWARK, Del. – Carvell Ammons had 15 points to lead a balanced scoring attack for Maine as the Black Bears defeated Delaware 74-68 in an America East Conference men’s basketball game Saturday night.

Maine (5-2, 1-1), which has snapped Delaware home winning streaks of 17 and 15 games over the past two seasons, broke the Blue Hens’ seven-game home winning streak as four Black Bears scored in double figures.

UMaine coach John Giannini put the game into context.

“The rest of their competition is 0-39 [in Bob Carpenter Center] and we’re 3-0 there in terms of regular-season competition [over the past three years],” Giannini said.

The Bears were eliminated by the Blue Hens in the America East playoffs at BCC in each of the past two years.

Julian Dunkley scored 14 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, Errick Greene had 13 points and Derrick Jackson chipped in 10 for Maine.

Giannini said the Bears love to play in sold-out Bob Carpenter Center.

“We have a lot of respect for Delaware, it’s an exciting atmosphere, and it’s a kind of homecoming for a lot of our players,” he said.

The Black Bears were without the services of junior guard Huggy Dye, who sprained an ankle early in the second half Thursday against Towson University and was not ready to play. Dye is UMaine’s top scorer.

“It was a game where our perimeter players were gonna have to run and defend very well and he just wasn’t able to do that,” Giannini said.

Sophomore Ryan Iversen came off the bench to lead Delaware (3-5, 2-2) with a career-high 18 points, including three 3-pointers. Ajmal Basit had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Austen Rowland and Billy Wells had 11 points apiece. Rowland also dished out seven assists.

UMaine took a 32-31 lead into the halftime break, but put the Blue Hens on their heels early in the second half.

UMaine’s backcourt spurred a 13-1 run over a three-minute span early in the period, and the Bears never trailed again.

Tory Cavalieri, Jackson and Greene scored the first three hoops in the spurt, Colin Haynes converted a Greene feed, and Greene followed with another hoop.

When Jackson made one of two free throws and Dunkley followed that up with a jumper, the Bears were up 49-35 with 13:45 to go in the game.

“We were having a hard time scoring in the half-court, but Cavalieri and Greene were doing a great job pushing the ball up court and we got a lot of points in transition,” Giannini said.

The Blue Hens pecked away at that lead and pulled within two on a Wells 3-pointer with 36 seconds to go.

But the Bears traded four Cavalieri free throws with Sean Knitter’s one free throw over the next 18 seconds and Greene iced it with another free throw with five seconds to play.

“You’ve just got to give a lot of credit to our players,” Giannini said. “I have a hard time singling anyone out because I think everyone contributed significantly for us.”

Black Bears 74, Blue Hens 68

Maine (5-2) Delaware (3-5)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

Greene 6 10 1 2 13 Basit 7 11 0 2 14

Ammons 7 13 1 1 15 Sessoms 2 6 3 6 7

Dunkley 5 12 4 7 14 Rowland 4 10 2 3 11

Cavalieri 2 6 5 6 9 Miller 0 1 0 1 0

Jackson 2 8 5 9 10 Wells 5 13 0 1 11

Waterman 1 1 0 0 2 Wentt 1 1 2 3 4

Haynes 2 7 2 2 7 Iversen 4 9 7 8 18

Brown 0 0 2 2 2 Knitter 0 2 1 2 1

White 1 1 0 0 2 Hindenlang 1 3 0 0 2

Totals 26 58 20 29 74 Totals 24 56 15 26 68

Maine 32 74

Delaware 31 68

3-pt. goals: Maine (2-10): Dunkley 0-1, Cavalieri 0-2, Jackson 1-4, Haynes 1-3; Delaware (5-19): Sessoms 0-1, Rowland 1-4, Miller 0-1, Wells 1-7, Iversen 3-6

Attendance: 4,974