ORONO – University of Maine-Machias men’s basketball coach Matt Lash knew his Clippers had their work cut out for them prior to Saturday’s 94-61 Maine Holiday Classic loss to Jacksonville State University at Alfond Arena Saturday afternoon.

The 6-1 Gamecocks were already a tall order as one of the top teams in Division I’s Atlantic Sun Conference, but throw in a guard-oriented lineup featuring great ball-handling skill and withering defensive pressure plus arguably the best frontcourt player the Clippers may see all season, and it couldn’t get much tougher … Right?

Wrong.

In his second game back after being sidelined with academic ineligibility, 6-foot-8 sophomore forward Carl Brown came off the bench and gave Lash something else to worry about as he torched the Clippers with a career-high 23 points to pace Jacksonville State’s victory.

“I’m just trying to learn from Omar [Barlett] and make the best of it. I’m finally getting the flow of the game,” said Brown. “It wasn’t just me. It’s the team. It’s a team game.”

Oh yes, the guards were as tough as Lash expected (15 steals and 29 UMM turnovers) and 6-8 senior forward Bartlett (17 points, 11 rebounds) was impossible to match up with.

“We tried to concentrate so much on the guards, that when they start doing their thing on the blocks, it makes it tough,” Lash said. “We really couldn’t get into our offense because they took away our wing and we couldn’t establish a post game either.”

The Gamecocks outrebounded the Clippers 49-33 and had eight blocked shots. The Gamecocks also feasted on the line as they hit on 12 of 19 free throws while the Clippers went just 4-for-8 at the line.

Starting forward Wayne Clark, who averages at least five trips to the line, took no foul shots, got into foul trouble, and was held scoreless.

Sophomore guard Garry Dussard led UMM with 18 points and seven boards. Forwards Chujor Chujor and Daniel Midgley each scored 10.

Things weren’t going JSU’s way early, certainly tempo-wise, as the score was 8-7 UMM six minutes into the game. A 15-0 run over the next 51/2 minutes changed that though as seven different Gamecocks scored points in the run which put JSU up for good.

“I thought Machias was the more intense team in the first five minutes,” said JSU coach and UMaine alum Mike LaPlante. “We had turnovers and weren’t hitting our outside shots, but on days when the ball’s not dropping for you, you have to find another way to win and that’s usually with your defense.”

The Clippers simply couldn’t contend with JSU’s quickness or depth. Senior point guard Poonie Richardson had 11 points and four steals while junior backup Scott Watson came off the bench for 11 points and three steals. Ten of JSU’s 11 players logged at least 15 minutes of game time.

“It wasn’t our normal substitution format, but we wanted to give some kids some minutes and keep people fresh, so we kept subbing every four minutes,” LaPlante said.

The freshness seemed to aid JSU’s shooting as the Gamecocks shot 54.9 percent from the field to UMM’s 36.4.

GAMECOCKS 94, CLIPPERS 61

Jacksonville State (6-1) UM-Machias (3-7)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Brown 2 6 1 1 6 Whittaker 0 0

Richardson 4 7 2 2 11 Munro 4 5 8

Denson 1 5 0 0 2 Dussard 6 18 18

Heard 2 7 2 2 6 Humes 0 0 0

Barlett 8 11 1 4 17 Vernon 0 0 0

Wilson 1 5 0 1 2 Liburd 0 0 0

Brown 10 13 3 4 23 Garrett 2 3 6

Watson 5 6 0 0 11 Campbell 1 2

Eager 2 5 3 4 7 Sims 1 4 3

Perry 3 5 0 0 7 Midgley 4 6 10

Storey 1 1 0 1 2 Chujor 4 10 10

Miller 0 0 0 0

Footer 1 4 0 2

Clarke 0 4 0 0

Thornton 1 6 2

Totals 39 71 12 19 94 Totals 24 66 61

3-pt. goals: Jacksonville State (4-17): Watson 1-1, Brown 1-2, Perry 1-2, Richardson 1-3, Eager 0-1, Denson 0-2, Heard 0-3, Wilson 0-3; UM-Machias (9-26): Dussard 4-10, Garrett 2-3, Midgley 2-4, Chujor 1-2, Whittaker 0-1, Sims 0-1, Thornton 0-5

Halftime: Jacksonville State 42-19