ORONO – The University of Maine men’s basketball team played its final exhibition contest on Sunday afternoon. Powerful Arkansas looms next for the Bears.

And UMaine has a lot of questions to answer.

“We just have a long way to go,” a somber UMaine coach John Giannini said after his Bears had fallen, 73-70 to GT Express, a club team from Toronto.

“Rickey White was really the only bright spot in my mind. I don’t think anyone else played well at all,” Giannini said. “And obviously I haven’t been coaching very well. It’s a team thing, and I don’t want to make it sound like my players are doing a bad job and I’m not.

“I have not gotten them to where they need to be.”

UMaine mustered last-second interception, then watched as a desperation Clayton Brown 3-pointer rattled off the rim.

White scored 21 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked 6-foot-10 GT Express star Kevin Shand three times in the game.

But White said the Bears didn’t put forth the effort they needed.

“I think from the beginning we came out flat, and a lot of our heads weren’t into the game,” White said. “And coming down the stretch, we didn’t play with heart. We didn’t play hard.”

The Black Bears trailed 43-40 at the half, but came back to lead by six with just 5:45 to go. GT Express took the lead for good on a pair of free throws by Mark Passley with 1:45 to go and took a 71-66 advantage when the Bears came up empty on two consecutive trips.

The lead was again five – 73-68 – when White scored on a layup with five seconds to play and the Bears intercepted the subsequent inbounds pass. But Brown’s shot didn’t fall.

Shand scored 26 points on a variety of explosive moves around the hoop.

Errick Greene added 17 points and had six steals for the Black Bears, but the point guard committed seven turnovers. Freddy Petkus was the next-leading scorer with seven.

Black Bear 7-footer Justin Rowe, who battled with Shand down low, said the Bears must improve.

“We’re supposedly crediting ourselves as being a very good defensive team, and for one person [Shand] to go at it like that, and for the team to have … 43 [points] in the first half? That’s horrible,” Rowe said.

The Bears were playing without sixth man Ricky Green, who was serving the second game of a two-game suspension, and seventh man Todd Tibbetts, who rolled an ankle in the closing minutes of Thursday night’s exhibition contest.

EXPRESS 73, BLACK BEARS 70

GT Express Maine

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Corbran 1 2 0 0 2 Petkus 2 8 7

Kamaka 3 7 1 1 8 White 7 13 21

Shand 7 14 12 15 26 Rowe 3 5 6

Passley 5 9 2 2 12 Greene 6 9 17

Hall 0 2 1 4 1 Jackson 2 9 2 6

Charles 3 5 0 0 6 Wallingford 1 3

Davis 1 2 0 0 2 Flavin 1 2 2

Kafges 0 0 0 0 0 Dubois 0 0 0

Tate 0 0 0 0 0 Campbell 1 3 2

Nicely 5 8 4 6 16 Croom 0 2 0

Hunte 0 0 0 0 0 Brown 3 11 6

Totals 25 49 20 28 73 Totals 26 63 16 19 70

GT Express 43 73

Maine 40 70

3-pt. goals: GT Express (3-4): Kamaka 1-1, Nicely 2-3; Maine (2-15): Petkus 1-7, Greene 0-1, Jackson 0-3, Wallingford 1-1, Brown 0-3

Attendance: 1,162