Hot hands, quickness lift Maine Brown, White keys as Bears crush Seawolves

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ORONO – After winning four straight and then losing two in a row, Sunday’s home game against a team that had won three straight against the University of Maine men’s basketball team was a huge one.

The fact that Maine was in sixth place coming into its game with Stony Brook University, one of five teams just a half-game away from the Bears in the America East conference standings, and has only two games remaining in the regular season made it loom even larger.

The Black Bears got big efforts from several starters, shot 53.6 percent from the floor, and never trailed after the first three minutes to post an impressive 74-56 victory over Stony Brook on senior day at Alfond Arena.

Appropriately enough, it was the seniors who led the way for Maine, now 13-14 overall and fifth in the AE standings with an 8-7 record. Forwards Rickey White and Clayton Brown combined for 32 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, and four steals.

Brown, who had been coming off the bench the last four weeks, got the start alongside White and responded with 16 points, seven boards, two assists, and two steals. The two forwards worked as well in tandem as they have been when one was subbing for the other in the playing rotation.

“It goes back to when we were getting very little playing time,” said Brown, who Seawolves coach Nick Macarchuk called the difference for Maine. “We used to take it to the starters in practice two years ago. He knows what I’m going to do. I know what he’s going to do.”

What they did was harass the Seawolves defensively, swatting at almost every pass and loose ball, and give Maine a reliable inside presence, even with 7-foot center Justin Rowe on the bench with foul trouble.

“It was all quickness,” White said. “We were much faster than them, making post moves and getting to the rim.”

The win dropped SBU to 12-13 (6-8 in AE play) and snapped a losing streak to the ‘Wolves.

“We beat Maine three times in a row. I have no idea how, but I think that was a little extra motivation for them,” said Macarchuk, who has his own team’s slide to worry about. “We beat [AE leader] BU, seems like a year ago now, and after that I guess our guys thought the season was over. This was by far our worst game.”

Another difference maker for Maine was junior point guard Eric Dobson, who scored 12 points and dished out a game-high seven assists.

“He’s the guy who had the energy today,” Macarchuk said. “If you watch him in comparison to our guys, he just went by us. He was sensational today.”

Freshman guard Kevin Reed turned in another great game with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor.

Senior guard Derrick Jackson and Dobson did a masterful job defending SBU junior guard D.J. Munir, who finished with 11 points after scoring 25 against Maine last month.

Maine outrebounded SBU 32-30 and committed 16 turnovers to SBU’s 14.

BLACK BEARS 74, SEAWOLVES 56

Stony Brook (12-13) Maine (13-14)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Munir 4 14 2 2 11 Reed 6 9 17

Santiago 4 9 2 2 11 Jackson 1 3 2

McCollom 4 4 2 4 10 Brown 6 11 16

Spencer 5 12 4 4 14 White 7 11 16

Konopka 2 3 4 6 8 Rowe 1 2 2

Feist 0 4 0 0 0 Dobson 5 10 12

Jennings 0 1 0 2 0 Hadjisotirov 1 2

Rickard 0 0 0 0 0 Petkus 2 4 5

Orfini 0 1 0 0 0 Hill 1 3 2

Eriksson 0 2 0 0 0 Dubois 0 1 0

Spitler 0 0 0 0 0 Campbell 0 0

Kobryn 0 0 2 2 2

Totals 19 50 16 22 56 Totals 30 56 10 74

Stony Brook 28 56

Maine 41 74

3-pt. goals: Stony Brook (2-10): Munir 1-3, Santiago 1-3, Orfini 0-1, Feist 0-3; Maine (8-20): Reed 4-7, Brown 2-3, Dobson 1-1, Petkus 1-3, Jackson 0-1, Hadjisotirov 0-1, White 0-2, Hill 0-2