BANGOR – Tuesday night’s Sunrise Conference men’s basketball game at Newman Gymnasium was as inflating for visiting University of Maine-Farmington as it was deflating for Husson College.

The Braves watched as the young Beavers executed a productive transition game and put the brakes on Husson’s halfcourt game en route to a surprising 88-83 victory.

The win not only avenged a 15-point loss to the Braves earlier this season, it also handed Husson its first conference loss, evened UMF’s overall record at 7-7, and improved its conference mark to 5-4.

“It IS a big one. It is huge to win on the road coming off a disappointing loss to Presque Isle,” said UMF coach Dick Meader, whose roster has no seniors and just two juniors.

Husson, now 7-4 overall and 5-1 in the conference, just couldn’t get any consistent offensive rhythm as the Beavers did a nice job on the bigger Braves inside with help-side defense against 6-foot-5 Braves forward Randy Fletcher (18 points, six rebounds). They also withstood early hot shooting by the Braves and didn’t deviate from their defensive plan.

“They were sticking the outside shot at the beginning of the game, but we stayed with it and concentrated on making them work hard for shots,” said freshman guard Travis Magnusson, who led all scorers with 33 points and had six assists. “And our big guys definitely played real well. They had to shut down Fletcher, who’s a great player inside, and they also helped the penetration.”

UMF’s primary big guys inside were junior center James Malley and sophomores Jon Bird, Mike Ward, and Bob Deetjen, who combined for 29 points and 22 rebounds. Malley led the effort on the boards with 10 rebounds and Deetjen finished with 15 points.

“I think I’m the biggest guy on the team at 6-6, so what we do is try and block a lot of cuts and get the help side defense,” Malley said. “Mostly it’s just getting to the boards as much as possible.”

They did that as they were only outrebounded 43-38 overall.

What they lacked in inside scoring, the Beavers made up for in fast break points as fellow freshman guard Trafton Teague of Fairfield complemented Thomaston’s Magnusson with 20 points and five assists.

“The first thing is our transition defense was extremely poor as they got a lot of easy buckets down the floor,” said Husson coach Warren Caruso. “Secondly, our offensive execution was … was … We didn’t have any offensive execution, especially in halfcourt.”

Each team committed 16 turnovers and UMF barely outshot Husson – 44.6 to 43.4 percent from the field – but UMF feasted on the foul line, knocking down 23 of 29 shots while Husson canned nine of 12.

The game was tight throughout the first 24 minutes, but a 12-2 Beavers run midway through the second half put them up for good, although Husson made a couple runs at the UMF lead. UMF’s biggest lead in the second half was 10.

Husson closed its deficit to four points with 21/2 minutes left, but UMF’s 12-for-16 effort from the line in the final 91 seconds kept the Braves at bay.

Corinth’s Ryan Rivera also had 18 points and six boards for Husson. Bucksport’s Jason Harvey had 14 points and Dwayne Ailey added 12.

BEAVERS 88, BRAVES 83

UM-Farmington (7-7) Husson (7-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Ginn 2 9 2 2 6 Armenakis 3 3 7

Magnusson 9 15 12 14 33 Fletcher 8 11 1 1 18

Teague 7 11 4 5 20 Rivera 6 15 18

Bird 0 0 0 0 0 Galley 1 4 0 2

Drillen 0 2 0 0 0 Ailey 5 18 12

Deetjen 5 12 5 6 15 White 1 5 2

Ward 3 8 0 2 8 Cyr 4 9 0 10

Malley 3 8 0 0 6 Harvey 5 10 14

Cunninghm 0 1 0

Totals 29 65 23 29 88 33 76 12 83

UM-Farmington 38 88

Husson 42 83

3-pt. goals: UM-Farmington (7-15): Magnusson 3-4, Teague 2-4, Ward 2-4, Deetjen 0-1, Ginn 0-2; Husson (8-19): Harvey 2-3, Rivera 2-4, Cyr 2-6, Fletcher 1-1, Ailey 1-4, White 0-1

Attendance: 250 (est.)