Bears stop Retrievers for 4th straight Balanced scoring key for UM

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BALTIMORE, Md. – It may not have been a Picasso, but University of Maine men’s basketball coach Ted Woodward didn’t care what Thursday night’s 62-51 victory over the University of Maryland-Baltimore County looked like. After all, a win is a win.

“It wasn’t pretty. We have to work on some offensive things. At the same time, we stepped up our defense and rebounding when we had to,” said Woodward, whose Bears won their fourth straight after a pair of losses to open the season.

“Any time you win on the road, it’s always good,” Woodward added.

UMBC fell to 2-4 in the mutual America East opener.

Maine has won all four meetings between the two.

The Bears used a smothering man-to-man defense to hold the Retrievers to only 10 points over the final 12:47 and gradually pull away.

“We tried a little bit of zone in the second half, but it didn’t work. Our guys have a lot of pride in their defense and they really wanted to get back into the man-to-man to lock people down. They responded well and shut them down,” said Woodward.

Despite getting into early foul trouble, Maine led by as many as 15 points in the first half.

But the Retrievers used a 14-6 run to end the half and a 15-9 rally to open the second half to pull within 45-44 on an Andrew Feeley layup with 9:05 remaining.

A David Dubois free throw and a Chris Bruff dunk off a fast break established a four-point lead and, after Rob Gogerty’s 17-foot jumper cut it to two, the Bears rattled off an 8-1 flurry and maintained at least a five-point lead the rest of the way.

Two Dubois free throws triggered the 8-1 run and Kevin Reed followed with a 16-foot jumper after a Retriever turnover.

Gogerty’s free throw made it 52-47 with 4:30 left, but layups by Joe Campbell and Dubois expanded the lead to 56-47 with 2:45 showing on the clock.

Gogerty’s lay-in and Michael Knight’s jumper from the corner made it 56-51 with 1:18 left, but Campbell was fouled in a scramble after a Reed miss and the Bangor native continued his perfect shooting from the line this season by nailing his 12th and 13th free throws.

Chris Markwood’s two free throws and Jermaine Jackson’s fast-break layup concluded the scoring.

Reed, Jackson, and Campbell each finished with 12 points, and Dubois contributed 10.

Reed had seven rebounds with Dubois and Campbell grabbing six apiece.

Markwood had seven assists and Jackson registered three steals.

Maine leading scorer Ernest Turner was held to three points, 11 below his average, but Woodward said his team’s depth compensated.

“Different guys stepped up. We have confidence in a lot of guys, not just the starters,” said Woodward. “We don’t need to have one guy carry us.”

Cory McJimson’s 14 points and three steals, Gogerty’s 11 points and six assists, and Feeley’s nine points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots paced the Retrievers.

Maine visits Morgan State on Saturday night at 7.

BLACK BEARS 62, RETRIEVERS 51

UMBC (2-4) Maine (4-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Knight 3 9 0 0 8 Turner 1 5 3

McJimson 4 8 6 7 14 Bruff 1 3 4

Gogerty 5 8 1 2 11 Flavin 1 9 3

Pugh 1 2 0 0 2 Reed 5 11 0 12

Bilal 0 5 0 0 0 Jackson 4 12 12

Davis 1 1 0 1 2 Dubois 3 4 10

Hodges 0 4 4 4 4 Campbell 3 12

Zito 0 1 1 4 1 Ahvenniemi 0 0 0

Housman 0 0 0 3 0 Markwood 1 6

Feeley 4 8 1 2 9

Totals 18 46 13 23 51 Totals 19 55 19 24 62

Maine 36 62

UMBC 29 51

3-pt. goals – UMBC (2-13): Knight 2-5, Gogerty 0-1, Pugh 0-1, Bilal 0-3, Hodges 0-3; Maine (5-21): Reed 2-6, Jackson 2-8, Turner 1-2, Flavin 0-2, Campbell 0-1, Markwood 0-2

Attendance: 1,274

Unity 100, EMCC 76

At Bangor, Jeremy Kervin scored 34 points and had eight rebounds to help lead Unity College to the win.

Jared Erskine scored 31 points and had 12 rebounds for Unity. Tyler Ferguson had 14 points and 12 rebounds, and Joey Bearce added 12 points and 11 assists.

Brooks Dyer scored 26 points and had seven assists for Eastern Maine Community College, and Mark Rivers had 16 points, seven rebounds, and five steals. Kris Douglass added eight steals.

Unity (4-7) 100

Erskine 14-3-31, Olsen 1-1-3, Giroux 0-2-2, Bearce 4-4-12, Kervin 16-1-34, Belonick 1-0-2, Ferguson 5-3-14, Sears 1-0-2, Mitchell, Curry, Carroll

Eastern Maine CC (5-6) 76

Erickson 2-0-5, Rivers 6-1-16, Alley 2-1-6, Boyington 2-0-5, Dyer 7-8-26, Chasse 1-0-2, Douglass 3-0-7, Krohl 2-0-4, Kingsbury 1-2-5, Korhonen, Lindhal

3-pt. goals: Kerbin, Ferguson; Dyer 4, Rivers 3, Erickson, Alley, Boyington, Douglass, Kingsbury

Halftime: Unity 37-30

UNE 92, Thomas 74

At Biddeford, Mark McManus scored 19 points to push the University of New England to the victory.

Mark Oliver scored 17 points for the Nor’easters. Tom Button and John Marriott each scored 15 points and Nick Farynaz added 14 points.

Adam Rich scored 19 points for Thomas of Waterville. Josh Yucius and James Godley each scored 14 points.

Thomas (3-3) 74

Rich 6-2-19, Yucius 6-2-14, Godley 5-3-14, Conrad 3-1-7, Barard 3-0-7, Grappi 2-0-5, Woodbury 2-0-5, Jett 0-2-2, Blodgett 0-1-1, Elrod, DePalmer

U-New England (3-3) 92

McManus 6-2-19, Oliver 5-7-17, Button 6-3-15, Marriott 1-13-15, Farynaz 5-3-14, Regis 2-1-6, Warner 1-0-3, Hutchinson 1-0-2, Fleet 0-1-1, White, Poulin, Thomas

3-pt. goals: Rich 5, Grappi, Godley, Barard, Woodbury; McManus 5, Warner, Regis, Farynaz

Halftime: Thomas 41-40

Women’s basketball

UNE 56, Thomas 53

At Biddeford, Essie McKinnon scored 25 points and had 11 rebounds to lead the University of New England to the win.

Ashley St. Hilaire scored nine points for the Nor’easters.

Amanda Godley had 19 points for Thomas of Waterville.

Thomas (3-3) 53

Godley 8-0-19, Fowler 2-2-7, Davis 2-2-6, Hathaway 2-1-5, Demers 1-1-4, Butler 2-0-4, Drosdik 1-2-4, Dyer 0-2-2, Hayes 1-0-2

U -New England (3-3) 56

McKinnon 8-8-25, St. Hilaire 2-4-9, Morin 3-0-7, Bailey 1-3-5, Weston 1-2-4, Peterson 1-0-2, Hesketh 1-0-2, MacDonald 0-2-2, Robbins, Royer, Rutherford, Rooney

3-pt. goals: Godley 3, Demers, Fowler; St. Hilaire, Morin, McKinnon

Halftime: Thomas 20-19