HANOVER, N.H. – David Dubois got his first start of the young season Monday night.

The 6-foot-9 senior responded to the vote of confidence.

Dubois connected for a career-high 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting and grabbed six rebounds, leading the University of Maine men’s basketball team to a 58-52 nonleague victory over Dartmouth College at Leede Arena.

Dubois, who went into the contest averaging 1.7 points and 11 minutes per game, scored 11 of his points in the first half, helping stake the Bears to a nine-point lead, one UMaine would not relinquish.

“He’s a senior now and he wants to step up and play a key role. We just felt that starting the basketball game he gave us a little bit of extra energy,” UMaine coach Ted Woodward said in his postgame interview with WZON radio.

UMaine improved to 2-2 with its second straight win after knocking off Atlantic 10 member Rhode Island last Friday night in Kingston. Dartmouth slipped to 1-2.

Joe Campbell of Bangor scored all nine of his points in the first half and contributed four rebounds, two assists, two steals, and two blocked shots for the Bears.

Ernest Turner scored nine points, Chris Markwood of South Portland provided eight, and Kevin Reed finished with seven points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

UMaine emerged with a 41-24 edge in the rebounding action.

“We’ve been doing a great job with our defensive rebounding,” Woodward said. “It’s been a huge emphasis. We just feel like it’s what we need to do to get ourselves some wins.”

David Gardner led Dartmouth with 11 points. The hosts went 7-for-19 (37 percent) from the 3-point line, including 6-for-9 in the first half.

The Bears led by as many as 13 points at 53-40 on a Dubois basket with six minutes remaining, but were forced to stave off a determined comeback effort by the Big Green.

As UMaine struggled through an offensive drought during which it scored only seven points in the final seven minutes, Dartmouth manufactured a 12-4 scoring run.

The Big Green crept within 55-52 with two minutes to play on Arnold’s give-and-go layup and a Callahan 3-pointer.

However, Turner made two free throws to push the lead back to five with 1:25 left, then hit another foul shot with 30.8 seconds left to provide the margin of victory.

“We struggled in the second half offensively, but we played enough defense and rebounded to get it done,” Woodward said.

UMaine took the upper hand by outscoring Dartmouth 8-2 during a span of 2:49 late in the first half.

With the Bears leading 24-21, Mark Flavin hit a foul shot and Dubois followed with back-to-back layups to make it 29-21. Ball countered with a layup for the Big Green, but Dubois converted a three-point play on a layup and free throw to make it 32-23 with 4:03 left in the half.

The Bears, who had struggled offensively at Rhode Island, went 15-for-25 (60 percent) from the floor in the first half.

BLACK BEARS 58, BIG GREEN 52

Maine (2-2) Dartmouth (1-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Turner 2 10 5 6 9 Callahan 2 6

Reed 3 6 0 0 7 McLaren 1 5 0 2

Dubois 8 10 1 1 17 Pattman 3 11 7

Campbell 3 8 3 3 9 Arnold 2 7 6

Markwood 3 8 2 4 8 Gardner 4 5 11

Bruff 0 1 0 0 0 Liddy 1 1 3

Flavin 1 2 1 2 3 Flynn 0 0 0

Jackson 2 5 0 0 5 Bell 3 5 8

Bode 0 2 0 0

Lang 3 9 0 9

Totals 22 50 12 16 58 Totals 19 51 10 52

Maine 39 58

Dartmouth 31 52

3-pt. goals – Maine (2-14): (Reed 1-3, Jackson 1-3, Turner 0-4, Campbell 0-1, Markwood 0-3); Dartmouth (7-19): (Callahan 2-3, Lang 3-8, Pattman 1-2, Liddy 1-1, Arnold 0-3, McLaren 0-2)

Attendance: 829