Hofstra trips up UMaine Road woes continue for Black Bears

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Norman Richardson made 16 of 18 foul shots and finished with 20 points as Hofstra handed the University of Maine a 67-62 win in a key America East men’s basketball showdown on Sunday.

The loss was Maine’s second in a row and marked the fifth time in six years that the Black Bears have come up winless on their annual road trip to face league foes Hofstra and Drexel.

“The good news is we’re very close to being a very good team,” UMaine coach John Giannini said during postgame remarks on WZON. “The bad news is we’re not because we’re just finding ways to lose.

“These are two good teams that we’ve played on the road, and we’ve got a lot of potentially good basketball in front of us. But the frustrating thing is I really feel like both these games were winnable.”

Jason Hernandez followed with 13 points, three assists and three steals for Hofstra (14-4, 7-2 America East). Roberto Gittens shot 4-for-4 from the field and added 11 points.

Carvell Ammons scored 23 points for the Black Bears (12-6, 5-4). Errick Greene added 11, but the Bears got just four points on 1-for-11 shooting from leading scorer Huggy Dye and four more in just 19 minutes on a 2-for-8 effort by second-leading scorer Julian Dunkley.

“Huggy did not turn the ball over. He was solid on defense. [His only problem] was missed shots,” Giannini said later in the evening. “In Julian’s case, I want to challenge him to play extra tough down the stretch, and we were just playing so well with Colin [Haynes] and Carvell in there.”

Gittens and Richardson each had five points as Hofstra took an 11-0 lead to start the game and built an 18-4 advantage after nine minutes of action.

“The beginning of the game was a nightmare,” Giannini said. “We started a different lineup [Rickey White for Julian Dunkley] and tried some different things to give the guys a chance.”

After that, the Bears slowly pecked away, and Giannini was pleased with the effort.

“I really feel like we outplayed Hofstra for 35 minutes,” he said. “We dug ourselves a hole and did dig our way out of it.”

Maine tallied nine straight points, four by Greene, to close within 49-47 midway through the second half. Richardson’s foul shooting kept Hofstra ahead.

The Bears pulled back within two on a layup by Carvell Ammons with 5:45 to go, but after getting a steal on the next possession, Greene missed a breakaway layup and Jason Hernandez answered with a 3-pointer for the Pride.

“I’ll tell you what, there were some bounces of the ball tonight that just went atrocious for us,” Giannini said. “We would get a great stop and a rebound would go an inch over our fingers, or we’d have a great trap, rotate perfectly, and the ball would just go right over our hands.”

Maine returns to Orono for two league contests this week. The Bears face Towson at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday and Delaware at 7:30 on Saturday.