BOSTON – The Terriers’ torrid shooting and tenacious, man-to-man defensive pressure combined to give Boston University its 10th straight victory over the University of Maine men Thursday night at Case Gymnasium 66-50.

The Terriers raised “The Roof” – the nickname for Case – and notched their 11th win in the last 12 meetings with Maine by shooting 52.9 percent from the field for the game and holding the Black Bears to a 37.3 percent effort.

“I think College RPI has them ranked number 40 in the country and they’re just a team that makes you pay for mistakes because they hit big shots,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward, who also noted BU was ranked first nationally recently in field goal percentage defense.

As sub-par as Maine’s shooting percentage was, it was still six-tenths higher than the figure BU was holding teams to (36.7) before Thursday’s game.

The news wasn’t all bad for Maine, however, as starting shooting guard Ernest Turner made a surprise appearance just 4:27 into the game. Turner, who is suffering from a separated left shoulder, played eight minutes in the first half. It was his first game action since he was injured against Binghamton Feb. 6.

“I wasn’t even going to come. I wasn’t even thinking about coming,” said Turner, who missed four games. “But my doctor said I could start practicing and coach said ‘why don’t you come and see what you can do?’ so I practiced yesterday and here I am.”

Turner finished with three points, two assists, a rebound, a steal and one turnover.

Senior guard Chaz Carr led the 20-6 Terriers, who at 14-3 in conference play are currently America East’s No. 2 team and two games behind Vermont, Maine’s Sunday opponent at a regular-season finale at Alfond Arena.

“They did a better job of moving the ball than they have earlier this year, but we did too and we got pretty good shots,” said BU coach Dennis Wolff.

Carr scored a game-high 21 points – 17 in the second half – and had five rebounds and four assists to help the Terriers stymie a Maine comeback bid with six minutes left.

Senior forward Rashad Bell had 17 points, freshman Tony Gaffney came off the bench for 12, and junior guard Shaun Wynn dished out a game-high seven assists.

Maine is 12-14 overall, 7-10 in AE play and looks to be entrenched as the No. 6 seed for next week’s AE tournament.

Yarmouth, Mass., native Kevin Reed led Maine with 13 points. The junior guard also grabbed seven rebounds. South Portland product Chris Markwood had 10 points and two steals. Senior Joe Campbell of Bangor had five points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Maine’s defense put the clamps on the BU offense midway through the second half, but the problem for the Bears was that BU’s defense was doing the same to them for four minutes. Maine finally got its offense untracked with what became a 10-2 run over a 7.5-minute span to close the gap to 50-44 with 5:28 left. Chris Bruff came off the bench to extend the run with two baskets, an offensive rebound, and a steal in a 53-second span.

BU pushed its lead back up to double digits as Bell drew a foul, hit both shots, and scored on an alley-oop slam dunk off an assist from Shaun Wynn, who started the break with a rebound and long pass with four minutes to play. Carr then almost single-handedly put the game on ice for the Terriers by hitting a 3-pointer from the left wing on a pull-up jumper, both ends of a two-shot foul, and back-to-back hoops – one of which was a 25-foot 3 from the right of the circle in a three-minute span.

BU outrebounded the Bears 33-31 and committed 10 turnovers to Maine’s 12.

The Terriers shot 51.6 percent from the floor in the first half and limited Maine to an uncharacteristically low 26.9 percent. BU also enjoyed an edge in rebounds (21-17) and turnovers (five to Maine’s seven) in the first half.

TERRIERS 66, BLACK BEARS 50

Maine (12-14) Boston U. (20-6)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Flavin 3 6 0 0 6 Bell 7 12 17

Campbell 1 6 3 4 5 Brower 0 3 0

Hight 2 5 1 1 5 Gardner 3 6 6

Reed 4 10 3 6 13 Wynn 0 4 0 0

Markwood 4 11 0 0 10 Carr 8 12 21

Turner 1 3 1 2 3 Wolff 1 1 2

Bruff 2 4 0 2 4 Geffen 2 5 6

Dubois 2 3 0 1 4 Gaffney 5 7 12

Ahvenniemi 0 3 0 0 0 Vasiliou 0 0

Peterkin 1 1 2

Totals 19 51 8 16 50 Totals 27 51 13 66

Maine 21 50

Boston U. 35 66

3-pt. goals – Maine (4-15): Markwood 2-5, Reed 2-6, Campbell 0-2, Turner 0-2; BU (4-15): Carr 3-6, Geffen 1-4, Brower 0-1, Gaffney 0-1, Wynn 0-3

Attendance: 1,072