ORONO – At times this season, Julian Dunkley has been an unstoppable force who combines his nearly 7-foot frame with guard-like skills that make guarding him difficult.

And at times, the 6-foot-10 University of Maine captain has been practically invisible.

On Thursday night, Dunkley showed up. His outside shooting touch showed up. And perhaps most importantly, so did a gritty attitude that helped push his Black Bears to an 87-77 overtime win over the Towson Tigers in front of 2,250 fans at Alfond Arena.

Dunkley erupted for a career-high 35 points (including six in the extra period), and added a more telling nine rebounds as the Bears improved to 13-6, 6-4 in America East play. Towson, which defeated UMaine in Maryland earlier in the season, dropped to 9-10, 5-5.

UMaine coach John Giannini said that when Dunkley is scrappy, he can carry the Bears. When he’s not, he doesn’t.

“I think if you were to look at a barometer of Julian, when he plays defense and rebounds with a real passion, he tends to have big offensive games as well,” Giannini said.

After spending last week’s two-loss road trip nursing some nagging injuries, Dunkley said he was happy to feel healthy again.

“I just came in with the attitude … saying that I’m just gonna be aggressive and try to make some things happen, penetrate … try to get some open shots for my teammates,” Dunkley said. “My aggressiveness is going to help the team toward winning big games.”

The Black Bears trailed by as much as 13 early, rallied to take a lead of their own that peaked at 12, then prevailed in overtime.

Towson’s Brian Barber, who scored 16 points for the Tigers, nailed two free throws with 2.3 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime.

His shots answered a clutch 14-foot fade-away by Carvell Ammons that had given the Bears a 72-71 lead with 52 seconds to go, and a 1-for-2 effort from the free throw line by freshman guard Tory Cavalieri with 10.6 seconds to go.

In the extra period, the Bears reeled off the first bucket, gave up a free throw, then scored six straight points to take command.

Ammons finished with 25 points and nine rebounds while Cavalieri handed out eight assists and scored nine points in 29 minutes of action.

Brian Barber paced the balanced Towson attack with 16 points. Shaun Holtz added 15, Brian Allen had 14, Sam Sutton scored 11 and Tamir Goodman tallied 10.

Cavalieri provided a big lift of the bench for the Bears during the first half, when he handed out six of his eight assists and helped bring UMaine back from 13-2 and 16-4 deficits.

“It’s been like this every game, where we start slow, sluggish, and coach just asks me to be our spark,” Cavalieri said. “And that’s what I do. I try to come in, pick up our momentum, and try to keep our poise while we do it.”

But though the Bears roared from behind, making seven shots straight shots, Towson didn’t roll over.

Maine enjoyed its biggest lead of the game when Huggy Dye, who played only 19 minutes due to lower back pain, hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key at the 10:12 mark.

But a couple minutes later Towson began to unleash a 10-zip spurt of its own, and the Bears had no answer.

After Towson closed the gap to two points on two Holtz free throws with 5:18 to play, neither team was able to build more than a two-point lead for the rest of regulation play. The Bears battled through nine lead changes and seven ties from that point on.

In the overtime, UMaine took control from the outset and didn’t look back.

“In overtime, they did a great job of going inside, and we shot jump shots,” said Towson coach Mike Jaskulski, who served as an assistant at UMaine under former coach Rudy Keeling. ‘… Hindsight’s 20-20, but we needed to go back inside, because that’s how we got back into the game.”

The Bears rallied from 13 points down to trail by only one at the half, then roared out of the locker room to take what seemed like a comfortable lead.

The Bears made their first seven field goal attempts of the second half and parlayed that effort into a 50-41 lead after four minutes of action. They didn’t miss for a five-minute span and got 10 points from Julian Dunkley over that period. Dunkley ended up scoring 13 of UMaine’s points during what would become a 19-7 run to start the second half.

But after building a lead that peaked at 53-41, it was UMaine’s turn to watch Towson rally.

Shaun Holtz accounted for 11 points during the Towson spurt, including two free throws that made it 62-61 Towson at the 4:59 mark.

In the first half, the Black Bears sputtered for nearly 13 minutes before solving a stingy Towson zone defense.

UMaine made just four of their first 17 shots and seemed out of synch, and the Tigers took advantage, blowing out to a 13-2 lead in the early going.

Dunkley scored 12 points in the first half.

Black Bears 87, Tigers 77

Towson (9-10) 77 Maine men (13-6) 87

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

Allen 4 10 5 6 14 Dunkley 11 19 8 35

Barber 5 8 6 7 16 Greene 1 3 3 5

Goodman 4 7 0 1 10 Jackson 2 7 0 5

Holtz 4 12 5 7 15 Dye 2 9 0 5

Sutton 5 11 1 2 11 Ammons 9 16 6 25

Spalevic 0 0 0 0 0 Cavalieri 3 9

Weatherspn 1 4 3 4 5 Haynes 1 2 3

Augustus 1 2 0 0 2

Shin 2 2 0 0 4

Totals 26 56 20 27 77 Totals 29 61 21 28 87

Towson 34 73 77

Maine 33 73 87

3-pt. goals: Towson (5-13): Allen 1-2, Goodman 2-2, Holtz 2-6, Sutton 0-3; Maine (8-23): Dunkley 5-12, Jackson 1-3, Dye 1-5, Ammons 1-1, Cavalieri 0-1, Haynes 0-1

Attendance: 2,250

Preliminary: