BANGOR – After watching Tom Nadeau torch his team for 17 first- half points, and after watching the University of Maine-Farmington guard rain in two more 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the second half, Quinson Lancaster had had enough.

“Not saying that Nate [Cyr] and Ryan [Rivera] weren’t guarding him well, but I just felt like I should get involved and give a fresh body,” said Lancaster, a 6-foot-1 Husson College guard. “I wasn’t really doing anything offensively, but I just wanted to play some defense and stop their best scorer.”

That’s exactly what he did. His defense, along with some sizzling shooting by the entire Husson lineup, were the catalysts in an 84-71 men’s basketball win at Newman Gymnasium.

Husson improves to 10-7, 5-0 in the Maine Athletic Conference, while UMF drops to 5-10, 3-3.

When Lancaster took the assignment, Nadeau had scored 23 points, and the Beavers were up 56-52.

Immediately after the switch, Husson reeled off a 12-4 run to take command of the game. Nadeau managed just five points over the final 15:40.

“He asked for the assignment, and said, ‘Let me try,'” Husson coach Warren Caruso said.

The coach’s reaction?

“He can defend. I would never question his defensive abilities,” Caruso said. “So we gave him an opportunity, kind of made a little adjustment of how we were guarding him … and I thought he did a real good job limiting his clean looks.”

UMF received 17 points from Mike Ward and seven assists from Mike Wilcox.

The Braves won the game without third-team NAIA All-American Robert Pilsbury, who was serving the second game of a two-game suspension for an undisclosed violation of team rules.

And while the Braves may have missed his 26 points per game, they never needed them.

That’s because Randy Fletcher dominated down low in the first half, scoring 16 of his 19 points and grabbing six of his nine rebounds before intermission. It’s because Scott Cunningham came off the bench to hit three 3-pointers, score nine points and hand out four assists.

And it’s because his backcourt mates – Lancaster, Rivera and Cyr – combined for 44 points and 14 assists. Cyr scored 16, Rivera added 15, and Lancaster scored 13 to go with his nine assists and four steals.

He took one of those steals, off Nadeau, the length of the court to help jumpstart the second-half run.

“Q’s our fire. When he gets going, everyone gets going. We just jump on his back,” Cyr said.

Cyr provided some fire of his own, hitting a 16-footer to push the lead to 65-60 with 9:09 to play, then beating the shot clock with a forced 3-pointer (off a Lancaster feed) that rattled through to make it 68-60 with 8:11 to go.

The Beavers never got closer than five after that.

“People are looking at it that, without [Pilsbury], we don’t have much of a team,” Cyr said. “But we really do. Everyone here can play. With Pils, that’s just extra.”

Scott Griffin added 10 points for the Braves.

BRAVES 84, BEAVERS 71

UM-Farmington (5-10) Husson (10-7)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Nadeau 9 15 2 2 28 Fletcher 8 13 2 4 19

Bird 0 1 0 0 0 Rivera 3 7 7 15

Wilcox 2 8 1 2 6 Lancaster 5 13

Deetjen 2 6 5 8 9 Cyr 5 12 16

Malley 2 7 0 0 4 Griffin 2 5 10

Ginn 1 3 1 2 3 Armenakis 1 1 2

Haynie 0 0 0 0 0 Galley 0 0 0

Nielsen 2 2 0 2 4 Cunningham 3 9

Ward 6 15 2 4 17

Totals 24 57 11 20 71 Totals 27 48 21 28 84

UM-Farmington 43 71

Husson 43 84

3-pt. goals: UM-Farmington (12-32): Nadeau 8-14, Bird 0-1, Wilcox 1-7, Deetjen 0-1, Ginn 0-1, Ward 3-8; Husson (9-18): Fletcher 1-1, Rivera 2-4, Lancaster 0-1, Cyr 3-8, Cunningham 3-4

Attendance: 300 (est.)