Husson, UMF win league titles Ailey, Fletcher help Braves roll

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AUGUSTA – After seeing their streak of six consecutive trips to the conference finals and three straight titles snapped last year, the Husson College men boiled their entire approach to the 2002-03 season down to one word.

Rebound.

The Braves wanted to rebound from a disappointing finish with another championship run.

Monday night at the Augusta Civic Center, the Braves rebounded, shot, stole, assisted and blocked their way back to dominance with a resounding 93-57 victory over the University of Maine-Fort Kent in the Sunrise Conference championship game.

Husson, now 23-5 overall, advances to the NAIA National Tournament at Point Lookout, Mo., next week. The UMFK Bengals finish up 18-11.

“It was a two-sided thing. We wanted to rebound from last year and we rebounded very well through this tournament, and we want to keep that up in the nationals,” said Husson coach Warren Caruso.

Husson singed the nets to open up a huge lead in the first half that only got bigger in the second as the Braves canned an eye-rubbing 15 of 27 3-point shots.

“Oh yeah, that was nice,” said 6-foot-6 senior forward Randy Fletcher. “Every time we play them, they double down on me. If they do that, I have faith in my teammates to knock down open shots.”

That the Braves did as they shot 45.6 percent from the floor overall in the game.

Junior guard Dwayne Ailey shot 66.6 percent from the floor en route to a game-best 22 points.

Fletcher didn’t miss too many either as he finished the game with 15 points to go with his game-high 12 rebounds. He also made two steals.

“Nobody can match up with Randy in our conference, so we knew if we got it to him and he made good decisions, kicking it out to whoever was open if he wasn’t, well… we’ve got some pretty good shooters on this team,” said senior guard and Bradford native Ryan Rivera, who finished with 11 points, six boards, and five assists.

As flashy as the offense was, it all started with rebounds and defense. The Braves outrebounded the Bengals 46-35 overall and harassed the Bengals into 21 turnovers as they turned a 24-point halftime lead into 39 with 31/2 minutes to play.

“It was kind of one of those downhill things where the train just kept chugging and chugging where we got up so much, they could never really come back,” Rivera said.

Freshman guard Jason Harvey of Bucksport and senior swingman Nate Cyr of Howland rounded out Husson’s double-digit scorers with 13 apiece. Cyr also had six rebounds.

The Bengals were paced by senior guard Andrew Clavette of Madawaska, who scored 16 points. Bartas Samaitis had 14 and Stafford Bente added 10 plus five boards. Freshman forward Vladimir Khazanovich and junior forward Matt Alarcon each led the team with seven rebounds.

The Braves opened up some early breathing room for themselves after Harvey entered the game and promptly canned two straight 3-pointers from the left wing with just under 14 minutes left in the first half to spark a 15-4 run that gave Husson a 22-15 lead with 9:56 left in the half.

BRAVES 93, BENGALS 57

UM-Fort Kent (18-12) Husson (24-5)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Clavette 6 12 0 0 16 Fletcher 7 12 1 2 15

Alarcon 0 2 2 2 2 Rivera 3 12 11

Samaitis 6 16 0 3 14 Ailey 6 9 22

Bente 3 10 4 4 10 White 3 8 8

Greshaw 0 3 0 1 0 Cyr 4 7 13

Khazanovich 0 6 2 6 2 Armenakis 0 0

Thompson 1 5 0 1 2 Zeikus 0 1 0

Patia 2 2 0 0 4 Wada 0 0 0

Henry 3 5 0 0 7 Galley 2 3 4

Cunninghm 0 0 1

Harvey 4 9 1 13

Leavitt 2 4 0 6

Totals 21 61 8 17 57 31 65 16 22 93

3-pt. goals ? UMFK (7-20): Clavette 4-9, Samaitis 2-4, Henry 1-2, Bente 0-3, Alarcon 0-1, Thompson 0-1; Husson (15-27): Harvey 4-5, Alley 3-5, Cyr 3-6, Rivera 3-6, Leavitt 2-4, Zeikus 0-1

Halftime: Husson 49-25