Bears stop Danes; nab 3rd in row Brown, White, Rowe dominate underneath

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ALBANY, N.Y. – Senior forward Clayton Brown continued his hot play of late with 17 points and 13 rebounds off the bench to help lead the Maine men to their third straight basketball victory Saturday night.

The Black Bears knocked off Albany 82-71 to sweep the regular season series and improve their all-time mark against the Great Danes to 4-0.

Thanks to their first three-game win streak of the season, Maine is now 11-12 overall and 6-5 in America East. Their AE mark ties the Bears with Binghamton for fifth place.

Albany dropped to 5-16 overall and 1-9 in the conference.

Brown teamed up with senior forward Rickey White of Topsham, who had 16 points and nine boards, and senior center Justin Rowe (13 points, seven boards) to pace the Bears’ inside effort, which dominated the boards with 49 rebounds to Albany’s 20.

“Probably their greatest weakness is a lack of inside strength,” said John Giannini. “They have great perimeter players, but it’s tough for them to match up with us inside, where we have kind of a three-headed monster with [Brown], Rickey and Justin. .”

The Bears were leading 54-53 with 10:48 left in the game before going on a key 11-0 run started by back-to-back jumpers by White. White then stole the ball and dished it to Derrick Jackson for a layup to make it 62-53 with 8:33 left. A Ludmil Hadjisotirov 3-pointer capped the run with 7:26 to go.

Maine never trailed after tying the game with 13:22 to play.

The Great Danes used a 10-2 run to get within five points of Maine (71-66) with 2:27 to play, but a Kevin Reed 3-pointer with 1:41 left ended the Bears’ offensive slump.

Reed finished with 14 points and seven boards.

Maine also outshot the Danes 53.8 to 41.0 percent from the floor overall and 42.1 to 35.7 percent from 3-point range to overcome 21 turnovers. Albany committed just seven turnovers.

“Shooting comes and goes, but we have been the number one shooting percentage team in America East most of the season,” Giannini said. “That’s been something that’s pretty consistent for us.”

A crowd of 3,961 fans – the largest of the season at Albany’s Recreation and Convocation Center – saw the Danes lose their fourth straight game.

“They play people very well at home. BU got out of there with a three-point win and a lot of teams have struggled at Albany,” said Giannini. “What I liked about our game was it was really a team win.”

The Danes hit eight of 16 three-point attempts in the first half but Maine scored nine answered points to finish the half and take a two-point lead into the intermission.

Freshman guard Jamar Wilson and Antione Johnson led Albany with 19 points each. Levi Levine scored 12 of his 15 points in the first half while Rhasheed Peterson wound up with 14 points and eight rebounds.

Maine’s next game is home at Alfond Arena against Northeastern Wednesday night.

BLACK BEARS 82, GREAT DANES 71

Maine men (11-12) Albany (5-16)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Jackson 1 1 0 0 2 Wilson 7 16 19

White 6 8 4 4 16 Peterson 5 11 2 4 14

Rowe 5 8 3 4 13 Levine 5 9 2 15

Reed 4 9 2 2 14 Johnson 6 17 4 19

Hill 2 3 1 2 7 Opong 2 5 0 4

Dobson 2 7 3 6 8 Pipikis 0 1 0

Hadjisotirov 1 5 0 0 3 Wyatt 0 1 0

Petkus 1 2 0 0 2 Knotts 0 1 0

Brown 6 9 5 9 17

Totals 28 52 18 27 82 25 61 11 15 71

Maine 39 82

Albany 37 71

3-pt. goals: Maine (8-19): Reed 4-8, Hill 2-3, Dobson 1-3, Hadjisotirov 1-3, Petkus 0-1, White 0-1; Albany (10-28): Levine 3-5, Johnson 3-10, Wilson 2-5, Peterson 2-5, Knotts 0-1, Opong 0-2

Attendance: 3,961