Jackson’s surge tames Bears Robert Morris holds Maine to 43 points

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ORONO – Other than A.J. Jackson, it was hard to find anything offensive about Sunday afternoon’s basketball battle between Robert Morris University and the University of Maine men.

The two preseason conference runner-up picks – Maine in America East and RMU in the Northeast Conference – used differing defensive approaches, but both put points at a premium.

Fortunately for visiting RMU, Jackson was unfazed by the defensive intensity and continued his hot start to the 2006-07 season with a game-high 21 points and 12 rebounds, leading his unbeaten Colonials to a 55-43 victory over the Black Bears.

The 6-foot-6, 230-pound senior forward almost single-handedly beat Maine with eight straight points and nine total during a game-deciding 16-1 run midway through the second half.

“They did a good job with their defense and changing those defenses up, but it really came down to that run,” said coach Mark Schmidt, whose Colonials are 4-0. “Both offenses weren’t clicking, but we got hot for two or three minutes and that was the game.”

Despite hitting just two of its first 13 shots from the field over the first 51/2 minutes of the second half, Maine only trailed 32-31, but then Jackson – the NEC’s preseason player of the year – took aim from the right wing for a 3-pointer and ignited the run with 14:13 left. Jackson made it 38-31 with another 3, this one from 22 feet out, 21 seconds later. A Maine timeout after Tony Lee’s hoop made it 40-31 with 13:37 left failed to stop the bleeding as Mezie Nwigwe canned a 3 from the right wing two minutes later to keep the run going. Only Jon Sheets’ foul shot with 10:36 left interrupted it.

The Colonials held Maine scoreless for three minutes and without a basket for seven minutes.

“We hadn’t had a run all game. We just needed one to pick up our offense, but it was our defense that finally made our offense go,” Jackson said.

It was a good news-bad news game for the Bears, now 2-4. The good was in a defensive effort that held RMU to 39.6 percent shooting from the floor and a season-low 55 points. The bad was in an offensive effort that produced 28.8 percent shooting from the floor and 43 points – their lowest point total since Feb. 2, 2005.

“We played a little bit of zone and switched around with some players,” said Maine senior co-captain Kevin Reed, who managed just five points on 2-for-13 shooting. “I think we did a good job defensively, holding them under 40 percent, but we didn’t do the job offensively.”

Despite hitting just one of eight 3-point shots, UMaine’s career 3-point leader did the job in other ways. The 6-3 guard had 12 rebounds, three assists and three of the 15 Maine steals that helped force 22 turnovers.

“We did not look like a mature team in certain spots today and you have to be in order to take advantage of opportunities when they come along,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward. “You can’t have that many steals – we had 15 and a lot of those led to 2-on-1 and 3-on-1 fast breaks – and not convert them into points.”

Sheets led Maine with 13 points and three assists. Chris Bruff had nine rebounds and four steals.

Lee came off the bench for 12 points, six boards, six assists and three steals to give the Colonials a big spark.

“Coach said their bench can’t outwork our bench and I guess that really clicked with him,” said Jackson.

Jeremy Chappell had 11 rebounds for RMU.

COLONIALS 55, BLACK BEARS 43

Robert Morris (4-0) Maine (2-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Jackson 8 18 2 2 21 Bruff 3 7 6

Harris 0 3 0 0 0 TchknBfia 2 5

Coleman 0 5 0 0 0 Sheets 4 16 13

Chappell 2 6 1 2 6 Bernal 3 10 6

Lee 5 10 2 9 12 Reed 2 13 0 5

Nwigwe 2 5 0 0 5 Socoby 2 5 6

Ehirim 3 4 2 4 8 Ahvnnimi 0 0

Senat 1 2 0 0 3 Cvanaugh 1 2

Totals 21 53 7 17 55 Totals 17 59 43

Robert Morris 26 55

Maine 26 43

3-pt. goals – Robert Morris (6-20): Jackson 3-7, Chappell 1-4, Nwigwe 1-2, Senat 1-2, Lee 0-2, Coleman 0-3; Maine (5-26): Sheets 4-14, Reed 1-8, Socoby 0-2, Bruff 0-1, Cavanaugh 0-1

Attendance: 1,121