Bears turn back tough Albany White, Campbell keep UMaine in contest

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ORONO – The Albany Great Danes were supposed to provide the ideal America East debut for a University of Maine men’s basketball team that had had plenty of problems during the season’s first two months.

After all, Albany reassigned its coach to another job within the athletic department – in not-so-polite terms, that’s called “getting fired” – on Dec. 20. And the Danes’ best player, E.J. Gallup, is reconsidering his basketball future at the school and didn’t even make the trip to Orono.

The Great Danes certainly didn’t play like a team whose role was supposed to be that of a week-late stocking-stuffer for the Black Bears.

The Great Danes scrapped, fought, and hit big shots all night long before the Bears stopped them 59-52 in front of 1,302 fans at Alfond Arena.

UMaine improves to 4-8, 1-0 in league play. Albany, playing its first season in America East, is 2-9, 0-2.

Among the reasons for UMaine’s victory: superior talent that was able to take advantage of the short Albany bench, some big plays by a pair of soft-spoken players from Maine high schools, and a series of defensive stops down the stretch.

“Without Rickey [White] and Joe [Campbell] today, I don’t know where we could have been,” said Maine star senior Errick Greene, the league’s leading scorer entering the game. “These two guys played their hearts out. They carried us today.”

Greene scored 15 points and handed out four assists for the Bears, but the play of Mount Ararat of Topsham’s White and Bangor’s Campbell were also instrumental in the victory.

Campbell tossed in 13 points – the third straight game in which he’s scored a career high – and White added nine points, 12 rebounds, four assists, and a gritty defensive game that Albany coach Will Brown noticed.

“Those three kids, Greene, White, and [Derrick] Jackson, defended us better man-to-man than anybody we’ve played against, including Ohio State and Syracuse,” Brown said. “Those [teams] would let us catch the ball, and then defend us. These guys wouldn’t even let us catch the ball.”

Many of the 6-foot-4 White’s rebounds were impressive, swooping caroms where he simply outworked – then outjumped – the opposition. All nine of White’s points came either on putbacks or from the foul line.

“I’m not that big of a scorer. I get out there and I’m athletic,” White explained. “That’s one thing I can do is play defense and rebound. I just went out and played hard tonight and rebounded my tail off.”

The Bears trailed 29-27 at the half and fell behind by as many as five points in the second half before rallying to take the lead on two White free throws with 14 minutes to go in the game.

Campbell played a key role in what would become a 15-5 spurt, nailing two 3-pointers during the run. Justin Rowe pushed the Black Bear lead to 44-39 when he completed a conventional three-point play after gathering in a Greene feed and dunking it home at the 12:59 mark.

Campbell, who was primarily a low-post player for Bangor High a year ago, said his progress from the perimeter has been a focus since he arrived on campus.

“When I first talked to coach, he said the one thing I had to improve was my shooting,” Campbell said. “I just work on it every day and I’ve just got to keep getting better at it.”

The work has paid off: Campbell went 3-for-5 from behind the 3-point line on Wednesday and has made 12 of 18 from beyond the stripe this season (66.7 percent).

Albany knotted the game at 50-all on an Antione Johnson (18 points) 3-pointer at the 5:55 mark, but the Bears held the Great Danes to two points the rest of the way, thanks in large part to their largest player.

Rowe, who had a subpar first half, was dominant over the last five minutes. The 7-footer blocked three shots during that span and finished with four blocks. He also had 10 points and seven rebounds.

BLACK BEARS 59, GREAT DANES 52

Albany (2-9) Maine (4-8)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Peterson 1 8 0 0 3 Campbell 5 13

Brand 4 11 2 2 11 White 3 5 9

Quattara 3 6 0 0 6 Rowe 4 5 10

Johnson 7 14 0 0 18 Greene 3 11 15

Opong 3 11 0 0 8 Jackson 2 6 6

Wyatt 3 5 0 0 6 Petkus 0 3 0

Young 0 1 0 0 0 Croom 0 0 0

Vukovic 0 1 0 0 0 Brown 2 8 6

Totals 21 57 2 2 52 19 46 13 17 59

Albany 29 52

Maine 27 59

3-pt. goals: Albany (8-22): Johnson 4-8, Opong 2-6, Brand 1-2, Peterson 1-5, Young 0-1; Maine (8-21): Campbell 3-5, Greene 2-4, Jackson 2-5, Brown 1-4, Petkus 0-3

Attendance: 1,302