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CHESTNUT HILL – With Boston College’s best player out with a possible viral illness and its sixth man out due to disciplinary action, Friday’s regular-season opener provided the University of Maine men’s basketball team with a golden opportunity.
A win would be invaluable in boosting Maine’s RPI (rating percentage index) and team confidence. And for 75 minutes, the Black Bears positioned themselves perfectly toward reaping such a win.
But with 4:03 left and BC clinging to a three-point lead, the Eagles regrouped, made a concerted effort to get to the foul line, and outscored Maine 10-0 in the last 41/2 minutes to pull away for a 72-58 victory at Conte Forum.
Sophomore forward Jared Dudley scored eight of BC’s last 17 points and led the Big East-but-soon-to-be-Atlantic Coast Conference-member Eagles with 23 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals.
“They showed they can perform with some adversity,” said BC coach Al Skinner. “I think we had a better feel for their offense, guys were talking better (on defense), and we got some good execution.”
Preseason All-Big East selection and leading scorer Craig Smith was still in the school infirmary with an undiagnosed illness and senior guard Jermaine Watson sat out the game due to an unspecified team rules violation.
Yet even with Smith’s absence and foul trouble on starting center Nate Doornekamp, the Eagles’ frontcourt was able to more than hold its own and bottle up Maine big man Mark Flavin, who led the Bears with seven boards, but was just 2-for-7 from the field.
“They did an excellent job on him inside. They really protected the paint when they needed to in the second half,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward, who made his head coaching debut.
Junior guard Ernest Turner scored 18 points in his Black Bear debut to lead UMaine.
“I don’t think it was so much what they did defensively as it was we didn’t execute plays in the second half,” said the transfer from University of Nevada-Las Vegas. “What we take from this is to do the same things we did, but execute the plays at the end of the game.”
Kevin Reed finished with 11 points before fouling out with 2:52 left.
“They were doing a lot of switching off screens to get through, but overall, I think the burden of letting this get away is on us,” said Reed. “They hit free throws and got offensive rebounds and finished when it counted, but that’s stuff we work on in practice everyday, so it’s on us.”
Steve Hailey’s runner from the high post gave BC its biggest lead to that point (53-45) with 9:20 to play, but the Bears came back with a Turner 3-pointer, a Chris Markwood foul shot and a Turner pull-up jumper from the high post for a 6-0 run that got Maine within two points with six minutes left. The Eagles came back with a mini run of their own as they bumped the lead back up to eight with two minutes to go.
The Eagles outscored the Bears 14-3 in the final 31/2 minutes to pull away.
“We know we’re right there with an outstanding Big East team, so it’s disappointing not to capitalize when you have an opportunity like this,” Woodward said.
The Bears were on fire from the 3-point line in the first half as they canned seven of nine. Reed led the way, shooting 3-for-3, before going to the bench with 8:16 left after being charged with his third foul. That hot streak didn’t extend into the second half as the Bears were 3-for-13 from the arc the rest of the way.
Maine shot a hot 50 percent from the field, canning 13 of 26 shots, but BC outdid the Bears, going 15-for-29 (.517).
The Bears also more than held their own on the boards with a 14-13 edge in the first half and an overall 33-31 edge, but what hurt was BC’s 28-20 advantage on points in the paint and 12-4 advantage in second-chance points.
EAGLES 72, BLACK BEARS 58
Maine (0-1) Boston College (1-0)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Flavin 2 7 0 2 4 Dudley 8 13 23
Campbell 2 6 0 0 5 McLain 3 3 6
Turner 8 15 0 0 18 Doornekmp 1 2
Reed 4 7 0 0 11 Hinnant 2 4 5 10
Markwood 3 7 1 2 9 Marshall 6 11 3 5 17
Jackson 3 12 0 0 8 Hailey 1 6 2
Dubois 0 1 0 0 0 Watt 2 3 5
Ahvenniemi 1 2 1 1 3 Williams 3 7
Totals 23 57 2 5 58 26 51 16 23 72
Maine 34 58
Boston College 35 72
3-pt. goals – Maine: Reed 3, Turner 2, Markwood 2, Jackson 2, Campbell; Boston College: Marshall 2, Hinnant, Watt
Attendance: 4,284
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