Bears escape ‘trap’ Maine holds off Wildcats at end

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ORONO – Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game against New Hampshire had all the makings of a “trap” game for the University of Maine.

The Black Bears were coming off what may have been their finest overall effort of the season and a big win. They were going for their fifth straight win – at home – against a struggling UNH team that had lost three straight to Maine.

The time was ripe for a letdown against a Wildcats team that has always played the Black Bears tough despite subpar records the last two seasons. And this Wildcats team had more teeth with the return of 6-foot-8 center Ben Sturgill and the emergence of 6-1 freshman walk-on guard Jermaine Anderson.

Wednesday was no exception as the Wildcats held the Bears at bay most of the game before the Maine men were able to escape UNH’s Bear trap with a 60-58 victory.

Maine, 15-7 overall and 9-4 in America East play, hit six of eight foul shots in the final 31/2 minutes and 20 of 24 in the game, but still needed some defensive magic down the stretch to hold on against the 6-17 ‘Cats.

After an Eric Dobson free throw made it 59-56 Maine with 40 seconds left, Sturgill hit a basket from the left block to cut Maine’s lead to one with 18 seconds to go. He missed the game-tying free throw, Dobson rebounded, and Maine’s Kevin Reed was fouled with 141/2 ticks left on the clock. Reed (11 points) hit the first shot and missed the second.

With four seconds to go, Reed made his third steal of the game thanks to Dobson’s harassment of Marcus Bullock and fell to the floor. Reed tried to call timeout to no avail and the result was a jump ball with three-tenths of a second to play. The possession arrow was in Maine’s favor and a Freddy Petkus inbounds pass to the Maine side ran out the clock.

Maine was paced by senior forward Mark Flavin, who scored 14 points and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds while playing Sturgill, who returned from a broken bone in his foot for the second time this year.

Sturgill led UNH with 16 points and nine rebounds in 18 minutes.

“We tried to adjust to him not playing as much by playing man-to-man, but when that didn’t work and he got hot, we went more to a zone and that worked well,” Flavin said.

Maine’s triangle-and-two defense frustrated the ‘Cats as much as UNH’s shifting zones hamstrung the Bears earlier.

Sturgill’s offense aside, Maine’s zone really paid off in shutting off the other half of UNH’s inside game. Craig Walls, a 6-7 forward, finished with 13 points and four rebounds after having 11 and three, respectively, at the half.

Dobson had 12 points and five assists for the Bears, who had one more rebound (31) and one more turnover (14) than UNH. Maine was unable to establish the outside shooting it used to victimize UNH earlier this season.

“We obviously did some things extremely poorly,” said Maine coach John Giannini. “I thought it was our poorest passing and probably most selfish game of the year, which is completely uncharacteristic of our team.”

New Hampshire’s defense, especially that of Anderson (three steals), was also a big reason for Maine’s malaise.

“Number 21 [Anderson] in your scorecard is now our secret weapon,” said UNH coach Phil Rowe. “He can guard anybody in this league and we haven’t been using him. How smart is that?”

Maine swingman Joe Campbell of Bangor left the game early in the second half after getting a bloody nose and never returned.

The Wildcats, who led 30-29 at halftime, are now 4-2 in games they led at the half.

BLACK BEARS 60, WILDCATS 58

New Hampshire (6-17) Maine (15-7)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Janev 2 10 1 1 6 Flavin 3 6 14

Walls 6 10 1 1 13 Campbell 2 7

Bullock 1 1 0 0 2 Dobson 2 12 12

Karalis 1 4 0 0 3 Reed 4 9 11

Walker 1 3 0 2 2 Markwood 1 2

Sturgill 6 9 4 7 16 Hadjisotirov 3 9

Childs 2 4 1 2 6 Petkus 1 3 5

Dennis 2 5 0 1 4 Dubois 0 0 0

Anderson 2 4 2 2 6

Peterson 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 23 51 9 16 58 16 43 20 24 60

New Hampshire 30 58

Maine 29 60

3-pt. goals ? New Hampshire (3-14): Janev 1-3, Karalis 1-3, Childs 1-1, Dennis 0-3, Anderson 0-2, Walls 0-2; Maine (8-20): Hadjisotirov 3-5, Reed 2-5, Dobson 1-4, Campbell 1-2, Petkus 1-3, Flavin 0-1

Attendance: 2,189