ORONO – In basketball, there are guys (like the ones who set the picks and make the passes and score when they get open shots) and there are guys.

Guys like Vermont’s Tony Orciari. Guys whose coaches expect them to score 20 points a game, and carry their squads, and figure out a way to win.

And when things don’t go according to plan, teams … struggle.

Just like the Catamounts did in their 79-72 loss to the University of Maine.

“He’s our man. He’s our guy,” Vermont coach Tom Brennan said after the Black Bears had put top stopper Derrick Jackson on the senior star, switched a new defender onto him off every screen, and held him to a 1-for-5, two-point nightmare. Orciari entered the game averaging 18.9 points per game.

“If somebody had called me on Sunday and said he was gonna get two, I wouldn’t even make the trip,” Brennan said. “What the hell’s the use in coming? He gets two, we lose. That’s it.”

Brennan was right.

The Black Bears, meanwhile got a career-best 21 points from Errick Greene, 20 points and nine rebounds from Julian Dunkley, and a 19-point, eight-rebound night from Carvell Ammons, who showed few signs of the thumb injury that caused him to sit out Maine’s Sunday loss to Brown. Huggy Dye contributed 10 points and six assists.

The Black Bears improved to 10-4, 3-2 in America East, while the Catamounts dropped to 4-8, 1-3. The loss was Vermont’s sixth in a row after a Dec. 10 win over Hartford.

University of Maine coach John Giannini was pleased with the effort his Bears displayed in stopping both Orciari and Trevor Gaines, who had been averaging 13.8 ppg and managed only six.

“We just made [Orciari] a point of emphasis when you know you’re guarding as good a shooter as there is in the country,” Giannini said. “He’s literally that good of a shooter. All the credit goes to our perimeter defenders.”

Jackson, Dye, and Greene all took turns guarding Orciari in the switching man-to-man set. Greene said the tactic was simple.

“We just basically tried to deny the ball, not let him catch the ball,” Orciari said. “And when he did catch the ball, make sure you’re up on him and you make him penetrate, because he’s a good shooter.”

The Black Bears bolted to a 14-2 lead in the first 5:30 of the game, watched as the Catamounts pecked away at that lead, and scored five straight to take a 34-28 lead into halftime.

Vermont got no closer as the Black Bears built that bulge to 14 points at the 10-minute mark, pushed it to 19 on a Greene free throw with 3:53 to go, then watched a desperate Vermont rally shrink the final margin, but never really call the game’s outcome into question.

Speedy freshman guard T.J. Sorrentine led the Catamounts with 25 points, including 10 in the final minute of play. He also handed out six assists.

Center Matt Sheftic, a 6-foot-8, 260-pounder, added 21 points while Grant Anderson scored eight and grabbed nine rebounds.

Sheftic scored 10 first-half points before the Black Bears neutralized him for much of the second half with a steady diet of low-post double-teams.

Sheftic didn’t make a field goal for the first 13:30 of the second half and committed four turnovers under the defensive pressure. He scored nine of his 11 second-half points after the Bears relaxed their defensive pressure in the post.

Ammons said the Bears benefited from their fast start.

“It was a must-win [situation],” Ammons said, “and everybody was hitting shots tonight.

“Everybody had confidence early in the game and we were just able to roll from there on out.”

After a string of games in which the Bears have struggled, Giannini was happy to get a more comfortable -and aesthetically pleasing -win under his belt.

“We had not been playing well, and it’s one of our better games as of late. I would have liked to have closed it out a little bit stronger, but any time you hold these guys down defensively and build up that kind of cushion, you’ve got to be pleased.”

Black Bears 79, Catamounts 72

Vermont (4-8) Maine (10-4)

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

Sorrentine 7 16 7 7 25 Dunkley 7 16 20

Orciari 1 5 0 1 2 Greene 7 15 5 21

Sullivan 2 5 0 0 5 Jackson 1 4 8

Gaines 3 9 0 0 6 Dye 4 14 0 10

Sheftic 9 14 3 4 21 Ammons 9 15 1 19

Anderson 0 2 1 2 1 Waterman 0 0

Thibault 0 1 0 0 0 Cavalieri 0 1

Anderson 4 8 0 0 8 Haynes 0 2 0

Jones 2 4 0 0 4 White 0 0 0 0

McLaughlin 0 2 0 0 0

Totals 28 66 11 14 72 Totals 28 67 14 23 79

Vermont 28 72

Maine 34 79

3-pt. goals: Vermont (5-22): Sorrentine 4-10, Orciari 0-3, Sullivan 1-4, Gaines 0-2, Anderson 0-1, Thibault 0-1, McLaughlin; Maine (9-25): Dunkley 4-8, Greene 2-2, Jackson 1-2, Dye 2-9, Ammons 0-2, Haynes 0-2

Attendance: 2,12