ORONO – The University of Maine men’s basketball team headed into the final 10 minutes of Friday night’s America East showdown with Boston University with a chance to make a statement by knocking off the No. 2 team in the league.

They made a statement. But it wasn’t exactly what the Black Bears had in mind.

For the second straight game, the Bears struggled down the stretch – making only five of their final 21 shots – and ended up on the short end of a 61-59 score. The Bears squandered an eight-point lead over the game’s final 9:06 in the loss.

UMaine missed 13 consecutive shots down the stretch in a 59-47 loss to Hartford on Tuesday.

Captain Errick Greene was frustrated by a loss that was similar to several the Bears have suffered this season.

“That’s been the story all year,” Greene said. “We had ’em [down] eight, and they hit a couple big shots. We let ’em hit a couple big shots. We put ’em on the free throw line, and we didn’t execute down the stretch.”

The Terriers improved to 14-9, 8-3 in America East play, while Maine dropped to 9-13, 6-5. With a win, the Bears would have tied BU and held a share of second place in the league.

The two teams went scoreless over the final 2:02 of the game, but Maine gave itself two chances to tie or win the game in the final five seconds after Justin Rowe contested and altered a Chaz Carr shot with 27 seconds to play.

After running the clock below 10 seconds, Clayton Brown missed a 3-point attempt from the top of the key, and Joe Campbell gathered in a deflected rebound at the foul line and launched a desperation buzzer-beater that missed the mark.

“It got knocked around a little bit and I just happened to snatch it up,” Campbell said. “I don’t know. I couldn’t get a good shot off there, it was kind of a rushed last attempt.”

Maine was led by Rowe, who scored 14 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and blocked six shots. Bangor’s Campbell added 11 points, seven rebounds, and three assists, while Greene had 10 points, six rebounds, and six assists. Campbell’s effort marked the eighth time the walk-on freshman has scored in double figures this season.

The Bears began the game doing exactly what they couldn’t do down the stretch: Making shots.

UMaine shot 54.5 percent from the floor in the first half, but connected on a chilly 30 percent after intermission.

UMaine coach John Giannini said the difference was simple.

“They played a lot more zone in the second half. We were missing the open 3’s that we had. They make it very hard to get the ball to Errick in at the high post,” Giannini said.

“We got the ball to Justin as much as we could and did a good job there. The part of the equation that was missing was when we had open shots, we just didn’t make enough of ’em, as evidenced by the extremely low field goal percentage,” he said.

The Terriers were led by sophomore sub Jason Grochowalski, who entered the game averaging 7.4 points a game in 19.0 minutes. On Friday, he scored 20, including 15 on 6-for-6 shooting in the first half. He also grabbed six rebounds in 32 minutes of action.

Paul Seymour added 13 points, also off the bench, while starter Billy Collins added 11.

“I thought our guys showed a lot of resolve, kind of fighting uphill the whole game,” BU coach Dennis Wolff said. “I thought, obviously, Jason’s play speaks for itself. He had a great game. He made a ton of plays. So we’re very happy to get a win over what I consider to be a very good team.”

In the first half, the Terriers were able to generate virtually no inside attack, and the Bears parlayed that fact into a 31-30 lead, for one big reason: Rowe.

The 7-footer blocked five shots before intermission and BU was unable to score a single point from the paint while he was in the game. But while Rowe made the going impossible inside, the Terriers were very effective from the perimeter.

BU made five of seven attempts from beyond the 3-point arc in the period – including a 3-for-3 effort by Grochowalski.

Terriers 61, Black Bears 59

Boston University (14-9) Maine (9-13)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Fitzgerald 0 2 1 2 1 Tibbetts 1 5

Carr 3 9 0 2 7 Campbell 4 9 11

Bell 3 8 2 2 8 Jackson 3 7 0 7

Collins 4 10 1 1 11 Greene 4 8 10

Butt 0 0 0 0 0 Rowe 6 12 2 14

Seymour 4 8 4 4 13 Petkus 0 3 0

Michalek 0 0 0 0 0 Brown 2 10 9

Grochowalski 6 9 5 6 20 White 1 1 3

Dhondt 0 1 1 2 1

Rodriguez 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 20 48 14 19 61 21 52 10 14 59

Boston University 30 61

Maine 31 59

3-pt. goals: BU (7-12): Grochowalski 3-4, Collins 2-3, Carr 1-1, Seymour 1-3, Bell 0-1; Maine (7-20): Campbell 3-5, Brown 2-8, Tibbetts 1-2, Jackson 1-3, Petkus 0-2

Attendance: 2,002