ORONO – No T.J. Sorrentine and no Taylor Coppenrath meant no problem for the University of Maine men’s basketball team.

The University of Vermont came into Alfond Arena with its best guard back in Burlington nursing a hamstring injury and its best big man – America East’s best player – in sweats and out of action with the flu, but they would get no sympathy from the Black Bears, who had a score to settle with the Catamounts.

Maine avenged a one-point loss at Burlington last month which ended with a controversial officiating call by knocking off the undermanned Cats 87-66 on “Senior Day” Sunday afternoon.

“One thing I would be remiss if I did not mention was, uh, down in Burlington they got screwed, OK?,” said Vermont coach Tom Brennan, whose team is 21-6. “They got screwed, and that kid, [UM coach] Ted Woodward, was so classy after the game. He never complained or cried and whined.”

Woodward wasn’t doing much crying or whining Sunday either.

“We kind of wanted to make a little bit of a statement as to where we are and where we wanted to go. We haven’t been healthy enough all year long to play the style we want to play, which is how we played today,” Woodward said. “I’m just happy because we played hard for 40 minutes, we played together, and we played smart.”

Maine, which enters next weekend’s AE tournament at Binghamton, N.Y., seeded sixth with an 8-10 conference record, had a chance for fifth, but was thwarted when Binghamton upset Boston University on Sunday.

“We had a lot of motivation,” said junior guard Kevin Reed, who hit five of eight 3-point shots en route to 17 points. “The last time we played them, we had them, so we just wanted to come out here pumped to play a good game. When you play in a rhythm, everything’s contagious. A lot of shots went down today. It was fun.”

The 13-14 Bears pounced on Vermont early by scoring the game’s first seven points, but Vermont used a 9-0 run to take a 15-12 lead with 7:33 elapsed in the game. The teams traded mini runs before Maine took the lead for good with an 8-0 run in the last three minutes of the first half. Maine expanded an eight-point halftime lead with an 11-0 run to start the second half.

“We passed the ball beautifully. Everybody was getting touches, we were executing on offense and getting stops on defense and that’s what wins games,” said senior forward Mark Flavin, who led the Bears with 21 points and 11 rebounds. “We got into a nice rhythm out there and as long as we get into a rhythm, we can be a very dominating team.”

Joe Campbell turned in his trademark multifaceted effort with 16 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals.

“This is a plus to go into the tournament with a good win,” said the senior guard-forward from Bangor. “Even without their two big guys, that’s a great team we played. They still have great shooters and a good inside game, but they were one and done, I thought, and that was a big key for us.”

The Bears outrebounded Vermont 24-21 on the defensive boards and 35-30 overall. They also held a 51.7 to 42.3 field goal shooting percentage advantage and committed fewer turnovers (12 to 16).

“We had no answer for them on the inside and they made a lot of 3’s in the second half,” Brennan said. “I mean, we missed two of the five best players in the league, but Maine came out ready to play and played great. I thought there was no doubt who the better team was.”

Freshman Jason Hight, a walk-on guard from Westbrook, had 11 points and four steals off the bench.

Kyle Cieplicki led Vermont with 14 points and Ryan Schneider had 10 off the bench.

BLACK BEARS 87, CATAMOUNTS 66

Vermont (21-6) Maine (13-14)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Cieplicki 5 8 2 2 14 Flavin 7 12 21

Klimes 4 9 1 1 9 Reed 6 10 17

Hehn 2 5 3 3 7 Dubois 3 5 1 7

Mopa Njila 2 8 2 2 6 Campbell 6 11 4 5 16

Duell 1 6 0 2 2 Markwood 2 7

Powlovich 0 0 0 0 0 Turner 2 7 8

McCrory 2 3 5 6 9 Bruff 0 1 0

Jensen 3 6 2 4 9 Hight 4 6 11

Schneider 3 7 3 4 10 Ahvenniemi 0 0

Harknell 0 0 0

Totals 22 52 18 24 66 Totals 30 58 16 21 87

Vermont 31 66

Maine 39 87

3-pt. goals – Vermont (4-15): Cieplicki 2-2, Jensen 1-4, Schneider 1-5, Hehn 0-2, Duell 0-2; Maine (11-22): Reed 5-8, Hight 3-3, Markwood 2-4, Turner 1-5, Campbell 0-1, Bruff 0-1

Attendance: 2,714