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ORONO – There was some good news to go along with the bad from Alfond Arena Thursday night, but it was difficult to find much of a silver lining as the blue-and-white University of Maine men’s basketball team got another black-and-blue result.
Understandably, Black Bears coach Ted Woodward was seeing red after watching his squad lose 71-57 to the University of Maryland Baltimore County – a team the Bears had never lost to before.
“For starters, we didn’t do that good a job at the defensive end. We get a lot of our offense off our defense and they shot an extremely high percentage in the first half,” Woodward said. “We couldn’t get ourselves going offensively and I don’t think we passed the ball as well as we usually do.”
The Bears’ fifth loss in their last seven games leaves them 9-9 overall and 4-5 in America East.
“It’s a very tough loss,” Woodward added. “We’re extremely frustrated. We’re frustrated with our effort. They got us in every area.”
UMBC’s game plan centered around shadowing and slowing down Kevin Reed and fellow junior guard Ernest Turner. The plan was successful due in large part to the defensive efforts turned in by Rob Gogerty and Chris Pugh, who acted as the Maine guards’ shadows for most of the game.
“I consider Ernest Turner and Kevin Reed to be two of the best guards in our league … And if you told me those guys were going to be 6-for-25, I would have told you you’re crazy,” said UMBC coach Randy Monroe, whose Retrievers improved to 4-5 in AE play and 9-9 overall with a third straight win.
Turner continued to struggle against UMBC with five points on 2-for-10 shooting. The last time the teams played (a 62-51 Maine win on Dec. 9), Turner had three points on 1-for-5 shooting. Reed finished with 10 points on 4-for-15 shooting, but also contributed with four assists, four steals, and three rebounds while becoming the 26th player in UMaine history to eclipse the 1,000-point plateau.
“It’s a great thing, but at the same time it’s disappointing because of the loss,” Reed said. “I never expected to do anything spectacular individually. I just wanted to win.”
Maine committed 13 turnovers in the second half and 21 overall.
Senior forward Mark Flavin scored 11 of his 16 points during the first 51/2 minutes of the second half and Maine outscored UMBC 7-2 early in the second half to tie the game at 46-all with 12:14 to go, but that was as close as the Bears would get to taking a lead the rest of the game.
UMBC switched to a blend of zones out of a base 2-3 formation and shut down Maine’s inside game while also continuing to frustrate the Bears’ outside shooters.
“We started moving with the zone and our rotations were very good tonight, moreso than they’ve been all season. We were matching up well out of it,” Monroe explained.
The Retrievers responded with an 8-0 run over the next five minutes and extended their lead by outscoring Maine 10-4 over a 41/2-minute span to take an almost irrevocable 64-52 lead with 2:24 to play.
Senior Joe Campbell of Bangor was not comforted by another solid all-around effort with 13 points, a game-high 16 rebounds, four steals, and three assists.
“We’ve got to win every game here and make big plays, especially at home. And you know it’s just… I don’t know, it’s difficult,” Campbell said.
Senior guard Gogerty led UMBC with 16 points and nine assists while junior forward Cory McJimson had 14 points, seven rebounds, and three steals.
The Bears looked out of synch offensively in the first half as they shot 11.1 percent (1-for-9) from 3-point range and 34.4 overall. Meanwhile, the Retrievers were blistering the nets to the tune of 50 percent shooting from 3-point range (3-for-6) and 52 percent overall.
GAME NOTES – Reed scored the 1,000th point of his college career with a shot off the glass from the left block 4:26 into the game. His basket was set up by a pass from Turner. Thursday’s game was his 78th as a Black Bear.
Maine’s already thin guard corps was thinned further as senior Jermaine Jackson has left the team. The 6-foot-4 swingman from Pahokee, Fla., missed two practices last week, faced disciplinary action, and elected to quit the team, according to coach Ted Woodward.
Senior guard Chris Markwood of South Portland continues to make solid progress in rehabilitating a broken hand suffered Jan. 2 – so much so that it was announced he might play Thursday, but Woodward said it’s a game-by-game decision and the time of his return would be determined by Markwood’s doctors.
“Yeah, we’d love to have him back as soon as possible. I mean, we miss him. We miss him,” Woodward said. “But that’s up to the medical people.”
RETRIEVERS 71, BLACK BEARS 57
UMBC (9-9) Maine (9-9)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
McJimson 5 8 4 6 14 Flavin 6 10 16
Feeley 5 11 0 2 10 Dubois 2 4 4
Gogerty 4 6 7 8 16 Campbell 4 11 4 4 13
Bilal 2 5 0 0 5 Turner 2 10 5
Knight 0 1 0 0 0 Reed 4 15 10
Davis 2 3 0 0 5 Bruff 0 1 0
Hodges 3 9 0 2 9 Hight 3 7 9
Zito 2 4 5 9 9
Pugh 1 3 0 0 3
Totals 24 50 16 27 71 Totals 21 58 11 13 57
UMBC 31 71
Maine 25 57
3-pt. goals – UMBC (7-13): Hodges 3-7, Davis 1-1, Gogerty 1-1, Pugh 1-1, Bilal 1-2, Knight 0-1; Maine (4-21): Reed 2-7, Campbell 1-4, Turner 1-5, Hight 0-2, Flavin 0-3
Attendance: 1,658
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