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ORONO – After the Northeastern Huskies had taken all of a minute a half to melt away the lead his University of Maine team had taken an entire half to build, Carvell Ammons got together with the Black Bears’ point guards and shared a brief message.
“I think [Northeastern] scored six or eight points real quick to tie the game and I went to Tory [Cavalieri] and Errick [Greene] and said, “Look for me.”
After the Bears had held off the Huskies and posted a 74-68 win in front of 1,920 fans at Alfond Arena, Ammons was able to grin while recalling the moment.
“They did,” he said. “I got the ball and was able to get us a couple of easy shots and help us out.”
In truth, Ammons did more than that, scoring 11 of the Bears’ next 14 points to spark a run that turned a tie game at the 12:50 mark into a 54-48 lead barely five minutes later.
Ammons finished with 24 points on 10-for-13 accuracy from the field and grabbed seven rebounds to help UMaine improve to 9-3, 2-2 in America East play.
The win may have been costly for the Bears, however, as freshman point guard Cavalieri went down with an injury to his left leg with 19.3 seconds to play. He was unable to put any weight on the leg and was carried from the floor.
Maine coach John Giannini said Cavalieri was feeling extreme pain in his entire lower leg.
Derrick Jackson added 12 points, including a key jumper that pushed Maine’s lead back to five points with 50 seconds to go and two free throws with 19.3 seconds left. Greene scored 11.
“[Ammons is] very quick in there and he’s strong,” said Northeastern coach Rudy Keeling, a former UMaine coach.
“Everybody talks about [Julian Dunkley], who’s a very good player, but I think Ammons is the key to their team. If you take him out of the game, they’re not quite as good,” Keeling added.
Northeastern got 24 points from Marcus Blossom and 13 points and 11 rebounds from Tyrone Hammick while dropping to 1-9, 0-2.
The Black Bears didn’t trail for the final 10:20 of the game (Ammons gave them the lead for good on a layup off a Greene feed), but they weren’t able to put the Huskies away, either.
Maine’s lead fluctuated between two and seven points the rest of the way, and held a tenuous three-point edge after Blossom nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing with 1:23 to go.
Enter Jackson, who played high-low with Dunkley, got a return pass from the 6-10 forward, and nailed a clutch 16-footer from the right wing as the shot clock wound down.
“Coach Giannnini told us in the first half, when [the clock’s] going down and you’re scrambling like that, just put your shoulder down and get a shot,” Jackson said. “That’s basically what it was.”
Jackson’s shot made it 70-65.
The Huskies followed that dagger with a furious flurry of 3-pointers. But after four straight misses, the Bears rebounded and Jackson hit two free throws to make it 72-65.
Northeastern’s Jean Bain rained in a 3-pointer from the left wing to narrow the gap to four, and the Bears answered with two Colin Haynes free throws to ice it. Haynes then dove on a loose ball at halfcourt as the Huskies rolled the ball inbounds to save their remaining time. The possession arrow favored Maine with 7.3 seconds to play.
Maine connected on 17 of 20 free throw attempts in the game and made five of six in the final 1:16 of the win.
Giannini was happy to escape with a victory.
“Some people might have wanted to see us win by a bit greater margin, but I have to be pleased with winning against a team that plays well and plays tough basketball,” Giannini said.
The Huskies wasted no time erasing a seven-point halftime deficit, as Blossom scored twice (once on a 3-pointer) and Hammick added one hoop over the half’s first 1:35 to make it 37-37.
Cavalieri had staked the Bears to a seven-point lead by hitting a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer off a feed from Huggy Dye. Rickey White scored on a tip-in after a Haynes buzzer-beater at the end of the shot clock cycle rimmed out in the final minute of the half.
Keeling said those two letdowns may have been the most important possessions of the game.
Black Bears 74, Huskies 68
Northeastern (1-9) Maine (9-3)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP
Bain 4 9 0 0 11 Dunkley 2 6 0 5
Blossom 10 19 0 0 24 Greene 4 4 3 11
Barnes 3 12 2 2 8 Jackson 3 8 5 12
Hammick 5 9 3 4 13 Dye 3 16 0 7
Aygar 4 7 1 1 9 Ammons 10 13 4 24
Amedee 0 2 0 0 0 Cavalieri 2 4 8
West 0 1 0 0 0 Haynes 1 4 3 5
Francois 1 2 1 2 3 White 1 1 2
Totals 27 61 7 9 68 Totals 26 56 17 20 74
Northeastern 30 68
Maine 37 74
3-pt. goals: Northeastern (7-16): Bain 3-5, Blossom 4-8, Barnes 0-3; Maine (5-17): Dunkley 1-3, Jackson 1-4, Dye 1-5, Cavalieri 2-3, Haynes 0-2
Attendance: 1,920
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