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ORONO – This time around, the 3-point attempt at the buzzer was Maine’s, but the result was the same.
The Northeastern University Huskies notched their second straight dramatic win over the Black Bears, this time 82-79 in a big America East men’s basketball clash at Alfond Arena.
A 3-point shot by Ludmil “Udo” Hadjisotirov with two seconds left bounced around and then out of the basket and time ran out before the Bears could get another shot off.
The loss overshadowed a brilliant, all-around effort by Bangor’s Joe Campbell, who scored 17 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, made three assists, three steals, and a blocked shot.
Jose Juan Barea led the 12-8 Huskies, who are now 6-3 in AE play, with a game-high 33 points. Barea canned seven of 13 3-point shots.
“I felt like my 3-pointer was good in warmups and it was going in today,” said Barea, who made 11 of 23 shots overall. “Coach gave me a couple tips on my release and I just kept shooting it.”
Hadjisotirov, who split defensive duties on Barea with South Portland’s Chris Markwood, scored a career-high 16 points off the bench in 28 minutes.
“He’s difficult to guard because he can drive off the perimeter, he can penetrate, he can shoot off the run and shoot from anywhere,” Hadjisotirov said. “You have to be very physical with him because he just makes plays.”
Ironically, Barea’s biggest play was not a 3-pointer. His driving reverse hook shot with 48 seconds left put the Huskies back up for good, 81-79, after Maine had outscored NU 19-8 during a 51/2-minute span in the final seven minutes.
“In hindsight, you’ve gotta think trap him [Barea] and get the ball out of his hands,” said Maine coach John Giannini. “If I had to do it over again, I would trap those ball screens and choose a different type of poison that might not have been as severe.”
Giannini felt good about his team’s chances down the stretch after the Huskies lost leading rebounder Sylbrin Robinson with 2:16 left and Cornellius Wright with 1:04 to go as both fouled out.
“I knew we’d be able to come back, especially when we were down because I knew they couldn’t stop being aggressive and there would be a lot of possessions left in the game,” he said. “But we didn’t take better care of the ball when we needed to. When we really needed good offensive possessions or we really needed stops, we didn’t do it enough of the time.”
The Black Bears, now 11-7 overall and 5-4 in AE play, shot well enough (40 percent from the field) and outrebounded the Huskies 39-35, but Giannini wasn’t in the mood to look at the bright side, given the turnover differential (18 to 13 in favor of NU).
“We’re not about the moral victory thing at all. We’re past that,” he said.
Senior forward Mark Flavin followed up a five-point first half with 13 more in the second, but was limited to one rebound. Guard Kevin Reed had 11 points and nine boards. Eric Dobson led the team with a game-high six assists.
In the first half, the Black Bears shot a solid 52.2 percent from the field, but still had only a one-point halftime lead to show for it. The Huskies shot 36.7 percent and had just two more rebounds (18) and two fewer turnovers (10) than the Bears, but grabbed seven offensive rebounds to Maine’s two.
“We were very fortunate to come out of the half down by one,” said NU coach Ron Everhart. “Their defense frustrated us, got us standing around, and led to some easy transition baskets for them.”
Hadjisotirov came off the bench to score a season-high 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting in the first half. He capped an 8-2 run that gave Maine a 27-17 lead with 7:33 left. Barea was the catalyst for NU as he scored 12 points in the first half.
HUSKIES 82, BLACK BEARS 79
Northeastern (12-8) Maine (11-7)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Wilson 2 8 0 0 6 Flavin 5 9 18
Davis 3 8 0 0 6 Campbell 4 10 17
Robinson 3 3 1 2 7 Dobson 2 9 7
Barnes 4 12 5 5 14 Reed 4 12 11
Barea 11 23 4 6 33 Markwood 3 6
Youmans 3 4 5 10 12 Hadjisotirov 6 10 1 1 16
Wright 2 5 0 0 4 Petkus 0 4 0
Dunn 0 2 0 0 0 DuBois 0 0 4 4
Totals 28 65 15 23 82 24 53 23 28 79
Northeastern 33 82
Maine 34 79
3-pt. goals ? Northeastern (11-32): Barea 7-14, Wilson 2-6, Barnes 1-9, Youmans 1-2, Dunn 0-1; Maine (8-22): Reed 3-8, Hadjisotirov 3-6, Flavin 1-1, Campbell 1-3, Dobson 0-2, Petkus 0-2
Attendance: 2,341
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