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DURHAM, N.H. – Coaches strive for perfection from their teams. That’s their nature. It’s what turns some into the screaming, foot-stomping people they often become on game day.
After the display the University of Maine men put on in the closing minutes of Sunday’s 72-61 win over New Hampshire, coach John Giannini could kick off his stomping shoes and relax.
It may not have been perfection. But it was pretty close.
“I told our team that the last 10 minutes of this game were as good as any team I have coached at Maine has played. And we’ve been pretty good during that stretch,” Giannini said.
Here’s how good: After the Bears trailed 44-43 with 12:17 to play, they promptly reeled off a 15-3 run to take control of the game.
And after the Wildcats edged back within six at 58-52 with 6:57 to play, the Black Bears regrouped, took their time, and put the game away.
Maine improves to 7-11, 4-3 in America East, while New Hampshire drops to 7-12, 4-4. The Wildcats had won six of their previous seven games.
The game was played in front of only 513 fans at Lundholm Gymnasium as many fans likely stayed home to watch the New England Patriots advance to the Super Bowl. The score of the AFC championship game was announced regularly and was greeted with some of the loudest cheering of the afternoon.
The numbers tell the tale of UMaine’s late-game polish: During the final 4:21, UMaine had eight possessions. Four times, the Bears ran the shot clock down under five seconds … and scored. Three other times, they wound up at the free-throw line.
UMaine shot 56.5 percent from the floor after intermission and held the Wildcats to 32.3 percent accuracy in the second half.
The biggest possession might have been the first in that run, as freshman Joe Campbell was stripped of the ball at half-court, then dove headlong after it and wrestled it away from a New Hampshire player 30 feet from the UNH hoop. After passing it to a teammate, Campbell hurried back down the court, took a pass, and beat the shot clock with a 3-pointer from the left corner to make it 63-53.
“It was just kind of a hustle play,” Campbell said. “I turned it over, and the ball was loose, so I knew I had to get after it or else they were gonna get a breakaway layup. The shot was just a matter of moving it around and then just clicking it to the corner and I was able to hit the shot.”
Campbell, a walk-on from Bangor, finished with 15 points and went 4-for-6 from behind the 3-point arc. He also had eight rebounds, four assists and a block.
Errick Greene added 17 points and five assists while Clayton Brown had 11 points and eight rebounds and Todd Tibbetts scored 10 in his second straight start. Seven-footer Justin Rowe scored six, grabbed six rebounds and blocked four shots.
New Hampshire received 14 points and 13 rebounds from 6-foot-4 workhorse Chris Brown and 11 points – all in the first half – from Austin Ganly, who played his high school ball at Greely High in Cumberland Center. Allen Gould scored 10 more.
Ganly was a non-factor in the second half after he turned his left ankle just 40 seconds into the period. He returned later in the half, but found he couldn’t cut off the injured ankle.
Ganly said one key to the game was Maine’s ability to deal with his team’s frantic end-to-end defensive pressure. The Bears turned the ball over just four times in the first half and 11 times in the game.
BLACK BEARS 72, WILDCATS 61
Maine (7-11) New Hampshire (7-12)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Tibbetts 2 7 4 4 10 Brown 3 8 13 14
Campbell 4 6 3 3 15 Gould 4 7 10
Rowe 3 6 0 0 6 Peterson 3 10 7
Jackson 0 6 7 8 7 Bullock 3 8 8
Greene 7 9 3 8 17 Ganley 5 11 11
Petkus 2 2 1 2 6 Sturgill 0 0
Brown 4 11 0 0 11 Williams 0 0
Faye 3 9 0 8
Senulis 0 1 0 0
Collette 1 3 3
Totals 22 47 18 25 72 22 62 16 61
Maine 35 72
New Hampshire 30 61
3-pt. goals ? Maine (10-21): Tibbetts 2-4, Campbell 4-6, Jackson 0-3, Petkus 1-1, Brown 3-7; New Hampshire (8-21): Brown 0-1, Gould 2-3, Bullock 2-6, Ganly 1-2, Sturgill 0-1, Faye 2-5, Collette 1-3
Attendance: 513
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