UMass holds off Maine

AMHERST, Mass. – Freddy Petkus came off the bench for a career-high 15 points, but it wasn’t quite enough to stave off the University of Massachusetts Tuesday night in men’s basketball action.

The Minutemen knocked off Maine 67-60 behind a 23-point effort by sophomore forward Rashaun Freeman at the Mullins Center.

Maine is 5-3 and UMass improved to 4-4.

Maine got within a point of UMass (52-51) with seven minutes left, but the Minutemen were able to push it back up to five 21/2 minutes later and maintain their lead as foul trouble mounted for the Black Bears.

“We played very hard, but we didn’t necessarily play well,” Maine coach John Giannini said in a postgame radio interview. “We really didn’t have any offensive flow at all.”

Senior forward Mark Flavin had 14 points, and junior guard Chris Markwood added 12 in his second game as a Black Bear. Sophomore guard Kevin Reed led the Bears in rebounds for a second straight game with 10 and also contributed eight points. Petkus connected on four of seven 3-pointers.

Massachusetts outscored Maine 15-3 on the fast break and 38-30 in the paint. The Minutemen also scored eight points off Maine turnovers, outshot the Bears 42.3 percent to 38.0 from the field, and outrebounded Maine 35-33. Maine committed 16 turnovers to UMass’ 11.

“We had a hard time getting good shots sometimes, but the good shots we did have, boy, some of them just rimmed in and out,” Giannini said. “We had a couple shots that would have put us up or tied the game in the last four minutes that would have changed the whole mindset of the game.”

MINUTEMEN 67, BLACK BEARS 60

Maine (5-3) Massachusetts (4-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Dubois 0 1 0 1 0 Martin 2 3 5

Campbell 1 4 0 0 2 Freeman 9 12 23

Dobson 1 5 4 8 6 Lee 3 13 8

Reed 3 10 2 2 8 Maxwell 2 4 2 6

Markwood 3 7 6 7 12 Anderson 1 11 6 8 8

Wallingford 0 1 0 0 0 Lasme 1 1 2

Hadjisotirov 1 3 0 0 3 Chadwick 1 4

Petkus 5 9 1 1 15 Viggiano 2 9

Flavin 5 10 2 2 14 Bowers 1 4 2

Totals 19 50 15 21 60 22 52 21 29 67

Maine 30 60

Massachusetts 36 67

3-pt. goals ? Maine (7-20): Petkus 4-7, Flavin 2-3, Hadjisotirov 1-2, Wallingford 0-1, Markwood 0-2, Reed 0-2, Campbell 0-3; Massachusetts (2-9): Martin 1-1, Viggiano 1-1, Maxwell 0-1, Bowers 0-1, Anderson 0-5

Attendance: 2,205