2nd-half surge lifts UM to win Bears rip Morgan State

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ORONO – It wasn’t like things were going badly for the University of Maine men’s basketball team Monday night.

The Black Bears led by seven points at halftime against nonconference opponent Morgan State University, but something was missing.

Judging from the way Maine played the second half, that something was sustained intensity as the Black Bears scored the first seven points to spark a game-defining 25-4 run and ended with a 74-38 victory.

“I thought we did a great job defensively in the first half, but I don’t think we converted it into as many points as we could have,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward. “I don’t think our defensive intensity dwindled at all in the second half.

“Once we had them on the ropes, we just kept staying at it. We stayed consistent and that was a good, solid 40-minute effort by our players.”

After being outrebounded 27-22 overall in the first half, Maine pounded the boards with a vengeance in the second half to the tune of a 32-8 advantage en route to a 54-35 overall edge.

Power forward Phil Tchekane Bofia, a freshman from Yaounde, Cameroon, had his first collegiate double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds to spearhead that energized effort under and on the boards for the Black Bears, now 2-5 on the season.

“At halftime, we talked about being consistent and always being aggressive on the boards,” said Bofia. “That’s why inside, we tried to do the best we could, bring the focus of the other team on us, get our guards open, and make the game more easy for us.”

The Black Bears certainly made it look easy as they never trailed or were tied after the first 6 minutes, 14 seconds of the first half.

“It makes everybody’s job a lot easier when you start rebounding, get the high outlet pass, push it, and on the other end get rewarded by making plays,” said junior point guard Rashard Turner, one of nine new faces on the squad this season. “We know we need to play two halves, but we just tried to take it to a new level in the second.”

Turner helped that in a big way by dishing out a game-high nine assists.

Turner was one of several examples of how Maine’s scoring wasn’t the only thing that was balanced. Senior guard Ernest Turner led the way scoring-wise with 13 points, and junior guards Jon Sheets and Chris Bruff had 12 and 10, respectively.

Junior center Olli Ahvenniemi had one of the finest overall efforts of his career with eight points, 10 rebounds, two blocked shots, and two steals.

Bruff also had six rebounds and Ernest Turner added five.

“Our biggest focus was just to play strong and convert layups. We missed a couple in the beginning, but the guards were patient and kept on throwing it down there for us and getting us looks,” Bruff said.

The 0-7 Bears of Baltimore were led by Joseph McLean, who scored nine points. Timothy Berkley led the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference members with nine rebounds.

It was a good news/bad news first half for the Black Bears. They shot 71.4 percent (10-for-14) from the line but 26.5 percent from the floor (9-for-34), and they committed an ultra-low four turnovers in the first half while MSU had 12, but only had a 31-24 halftime lead to show for it.

BLACK BEARS 74, BEARS 38

Morgan State (0-7) Maine (2-5)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Lee 0 5 2 2 2 Ahvenniemi 3 7 8

Berkley 3 6 0 1 6 Tchkne Bfia 3 12 4 7 10

Mathis 3 11 0 0 6 R. Turner 2 5

McLean 4 8 0 0 9 E. Turner 3 13 4 4 13

Gomes 2 3 0 0 4 Sheets 4 6 12

Jenkins 1 2 0 2 2 Keith 0 0 0

Reed 0 6 0 0 0 Bruff 3 6 4 10

Barnes 2 3 0 1 5 Hight 2 6 4

Warfield 1 6 1 2 3 Petkus 2 6 6

O’Reggio 0 2 1 2 1 Scales 0 0 0

McIver 0 2 0 0 0 Cavanaugh 2 6

Harknell 0 1 0

Totals 16 54 4 10 38 Totals 24 64 16 22 74

Morgan State 24 38

Maine 31 74

3-pt. goals – Morgan State (2-9): McLean 1-1, Barnes 1-1, Gomes 0-1, Warfield 0-1, Mathis 0-2, Reed 0-3; Maine (10-21): Sheets 4-6, Turner 3-6, Petkus 2-6, R. Turner 1-2, Harknell 0-1

Attendance: 1,019