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BOSTON – The scouting report opponents compile on the University of Maine is really no secret: The Black Bears lack perimeter snipers.
In Saturday night’s America East quarterfinal game, their most accurate shooter – Joe Campbell – was sitting on the bench in a shirt and tie, recovering from mononucleosis. The opposing coach, New Hampshire’s Phil Rowe, decided to let the Bears try their luck from the perimeter.
And while the Black Bears missed shot … after shot … after shot (15 straight 3-pointers at one point), Rowe looked like a genius.
The drought didn’t last forever.
Maine hit three straight 3-pointers during a three-minute span late in the game, rallied from a nine-point deficit over the final 8:23, and posted a 54-46 win over the Wildcats.
“They were daring us to shoot the ball and then we had some guys step up and say, ‘OK. You’re daring me? I’m gonna take ’em,”‘ UMaine coach John Giannini said. “And we made a few and it opened up some other things.”
That they did.
Freshman Freddy Petkus ended a 15-miss UMaine skein when he nailed a 3-pointer from the right wing at the 8:08 mark with the Bears trailing 37-28.
After consecutive Clayton Brown hoops, Derrick Jackson and Petkus rained in back-to-back bombs to make it 42-39 Bears with 5:16 to play. UMaine never trailed again.
UNH’s Rowe said the gamble was one he’d make again.
“When you throw up enough, a couple might go in,” Rowe said. “They’re good basketball players and I’m sure they shoot a lot of shots. They aren’t great shooters, and we did dare them. And the dare lost.”
A by-product of Maine’s brief show of perimeter power: The post players got a little bit more room to operate.
Maine 7-footer Justin Rowe (12 points, seven rebounds and three blocks) noticed the difference.
“Coach is telling me to make a quick move, a strong move, because they’re swarming me, and that’s what I’m trying to do,” he said. “And then at the very end we hit some 3’s and it seemed like I got one right under the basket pretty easily, which was the first one all night.”
Brown paced the Bears with 13 points and seven rebounds in 24 minutes off the bench. Greene added nine points and nine rebounds.
Brown, who possesses a variety of low-post moves, said he didn’t think the UNH zone was as restricting as others said.
“I thought it was easy points, to tell the truth,” he said. “Coach wanted me to go outside, and I said, ‘No. Just leave me down in the low post.’ And things worked themselves out.”
While the Black Bears’ late offense turned the tide, their sustained defensive effort won the game. Maine held UNH to just 32.1 percent accuracy from the floor, and limited All-America East first-teamer Chris Brown to five points on 2-for-6 shooting.
Errick Greene guarded Brown for much of the time, while Jackson handled Marcus Bullock (nine points) and Rickey White shadowed UNH standout Austin Ganly (13 points, including 11 straight Wildcat points early in the second half).
“We knew going into this game that we had to stop their big three, and we took it upon ourselves to get the job done,” Greene said.
Roland Williams pitched in with 10 points for the Wildcats.
BLACK BEARS 54, WILDCATS 48
Maine (11-17) New Hampshire (11-17)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP
Tibbetts 0 6 0 0 0 Bullock 2 10 9
Jackson 1 7 3 4 6 Ganley 5 11 1 13
Greene 2 9 4 8 9 Brown 2 6 0 5
White 2 2 2 4 6 Faye 2 6 0 4
Rowe 5 5 2 7 12 Peterson 2 5 4
Petkus 2 7 0 0 6 Sturgill 1 3 3
Flavin 1 3 0 0 2 Senulis 0 4 0 0
Brown 5 7 3 3 13 Collette 0 0 0
Williams 4 11 10
Totals 18 46 14 26 54 Totals 18 56 6 16 48
Maine 18 54
New Hampshire 16 48
3-pt. goals ? Maine (4-20): Petkus 2-6, Greene 1-3, Jackson 1-5, Tibbetts 0-5, Brown 0-1; UNH (6-23): Ganly 2-3, Wiliams 2-5, Brown 1-2, Bullock 1-9, Faye 0-2, Senulis 0-2
Attendance: 2,130
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