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BOSTON – The University of Maine men’s basketball team wasn’t ungrateful to Stony Brook University for the Seawolves’ stunning Saturday upset of top seed and longtime nemesis Boston University, but it played that way on Sunday.
The fourth-seeded Black Bears thanked the Seawolves by combining superior bench strength, solid overall shooting, excellent rebounding, and ball control to beat the worn-out Seawolves 78-54 in a Sunday America East conference semifinal.
“First and foremost, B.U. did not play a poor game … Stony Brook was outstanding and they would have beaten a ton of teams yesterday,” said Maine coach John Giannini. “I’m just glad they didn’t get another day of rest.”
Maine accomplished two goals in one game by advancing to the conference championship game for the fourth time in program history (second time in the last three years) and reaching the 20-win mark with a 20-9 record (14-6 in AE play).
The Bears wrote the final chapter of the season for No. 8 seed SBU – whose acronyms seemed better-suited to mean Story Book University after the 10-20 ‘Wolves improbable ride into the AE semis – with a group author effort.
“We literally had all 11 guys who suited up contribute in very significant ways,” said Giannini, whose Bears will travel to play defending champ and No. 2 Vermont at Patrick Gym in Burlington Saturday at noon.
Maine’s bench players contributed in a major way with 41 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, three blocks, and two steals. They also committed only five turnovers as Maine equaled a season-low with eight.
“It’s not often you can say every person played well and it’s a fitting end to this round of the tournament for this team,” Giannini said.
Some of the more noteworthy persons were:
. Senior point guard Eric Dobson had 11 points and (more importantly) dished out a game-high eight assists without a single turnover.
“I always say we go as Eric goes and he had it going today,” said Giannini.
. Sophomore guard Kevin Reed scored nine of his game-high 17 points by attacking the lanes and blocks on drives in the first 5 minutes, 16 seconds of the second half to fuel a 14-6 run that effectively put SBU away for good. Maine never led by less than 14 points the rest of the way. He also grabbed seven rebounds.
“We just came out and knew what we had to do. We wanted to run, run, and run,” Reed said. “I kept seeing some openings and I just went for them.”
. Senior guard Udo Hadjisotirov provided instant offense off the bench with a 3-pointer after entering three minutes into the game en route to 17 points.
“Udo gave us a tremendous lift and I thought he was a key when we really made a run and got the lead over 20,” Giannini said.
. Junior guard Freddy Petkus closed the first half with a flourish and seven of Maine’s final nine points, including a buzzer-beater from the left wing. He scored seven of his nine in the four-minute span.
“That shot he hit before the half was big because we had a chance to get it down to four points and then they get the ball and he hits the shot to make it eight,” said SBU coach Nick Macarchuk.
. Junior forward David Dubois scored only seven points, but provided crucial defense on bruising SBU forward Cori Spencer, who was hurting Maine inside early against forward Mark Flavin, who strained his calf muscle Saturday. Spencer had seven of SBU’s first nine points in the opening eight minutes and five the rest of the way.
“In this league, there are some matchups that are tough for Mark and good for me and Cori Spencer is one of them,” Dubois said. “He’s so big, you have to be quick against him on offense and front him on defense.”
. Junior guard-forward Joe Campbell of Bangor was again Mr. Versatility as he had a game-high eight rebounds along with six points and two steals.
. Junior guard Chris Markwood of South Portland covered SBU leading scorer D.J. Munir like a fitted sheet. Munir hit only one of his first nine shots en route to six points – 9.6 below his per-game average.
“Defensively, I think he’s good or better than any player in the league,” Giannini said.
Maine outrebounded SBU 41-23 and outshot the Seawolves 49.1 percent to 35.7 from the field and 73.7 to 57.1 from the line.
“We tried to make them dream a little bit, but they didn’t have the energy,” Macarchuk said. “They ran out of gas.”
BLACK BEARS 78, SEAWOLVES 54
Stony Brook (10-10) Maine (20-9)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Feist 0 2 0 0 0 Dobson 4 11 11
Beauford 5 8 1 4 12 Flavin 1 2 2
Munir 3 16 0 1 6 Reed 7 14 17
Popoko 0 0 0 0 0 Campbell 2 6
Konopka 3 9 3 4 9 Markwood 0 1
Rickard 1 1 0 0 3 Wallingford 1 3
Orfini 0 2 2 4 2 Hadjisotirov 5 17
Santiago 1 5 0 0 2 Petkus 3 4 9
Bamiro 0 0 0 0 0 Dubois 3 6 7
Hurley 0 2 1 2 1 Bruff 1 2 2
Spencer 5 8 4 5 14 Ahvenniemi 1 3
Bennett 1 1 1 1 3
Colin 1 2 0 0 2
Totals 20 56 12 21 54 Totals 28 57 14 19 78
Stony Brook 24 54
Maine 32 78
3-pt. goals ? Stony Brook (2-16): Beauford 1-2, Rickard 1-1, Colin 0-1, Santiago 0-1, Orfini 0-1, Feist 0-2, Konopka 0-2, Munir 0-6; Maine (8-17): Hadjisotirov 3-5, Reed 3-6, Wallingford 1-2, Dobson 1-3, Petkus 0-1
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