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BOSTON – The monkey is starting to feel like a rhinoceros on the back of the University of Maine men’s basketball team.
Tuesday night’s game against Boston University was Maine’s third straight America East conference game, third straight game in which the Black Bears led at halftime, and third straight frustrating defeat.
The Terriers pulled out a 65-63 victory over Maine at Case Gym despite not scoring a basket in the last minute and 40 seconds, and seeing Maine senior guard Kevin Reed explode for 29 points.
“I started this season at 50 years old,” said BU coach Dennis Wolff, referring to five straight BU games in which the final margin was five points or less. “When it ends, I’ll be like 70.”
If Wolff, whose Terriers are now 4-10 overall after evening their conference mark at 1-1, is aging that rapidly, Maine coach Ted Woodward will soon be pushing 100 if his Black Bears continue to have victory pulled away in the final seconds of games in which they’ve held significant statistical advantages. Tuesday, the Bears outshot BU 47.1 percent to 41.5 percent from the field and 47.6 percent to 33.3 percent from 3-point range.
“We’re going to get one of these sometime soon. We’ve got to,” Woodward said while forcing a smile.
The Bears are now 5-10 overall and 0-3 in AE play.
With BU leading 64-63, Brian Macon missed the front end of a 1-and-1 foul shot and a jump ball was called after the ensuing scramble for the loose-ball rebound. The possession arrow gave Maine the ball with 11.1 seconds left. Maine point guard Jon Sheets took the ball down court and drove to the left block and then handed the ball to teammate Philippe Tchekane Bofia, but the ball went off Bofia’s stomach and out of bounds with 3.8 seconds left.
Macon was then fouled again with 2.5 seconds left and hit the first of two shots but missed the second, setting up a Reed heave from beyond halfcourt that barely missed and fell off the left front of the rim as time expired.
Despite Reed’s 11-for-21 shooting effort (6-for-12 from 3-point range), five rebounds, three assists and two steals, he was tough on himself afterward.
“I had six turnovers so that’s six possessions they got and we lost by one,” said Reed.
Reed was a one-man scoring machine for Maine in the first 12 minutes of the second half, but that wasn’t a good thing from the Bears’ perspective as the senior guard was the only one who could generate any points.
Reed had Maine’s first 13 points of the second half, and it wasn’t enough as the Terriers used runs of 8-0 and 12-2 to take their biggest lead of the game (57-47) with 9:44 to play.
“I thought trying to put pressure on them fullcourt wore them down a little and we came out with good intensity in the second half,” said Wolff. ”
While Reed starred for Maine, freshman guard Corey Lowe paced the Terriers with 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals despite also having to guard Reed.
“We just wanted to make them rush and be shaky with the ball,” said Lowe. “Today was definitely one of our best team defensive games.”
The Terriers helped force 16 Maine turnovers while committing 11 themselves and outrebounded Maine 32-30.
Tyler Morris and Lowe figured prominently in both key BU runs as Morris hit back-to-back 3s and stole an inbounds pass and notched an assist on one of Lowe’s three hoops during the game-deciding eight-minute span.
Chris Bruff had 10 points, three rebounds and an assist in the first half, but finished with just 11 points, six rebounds, and three assists.
“I ended up passing the ball more, kicking the ball out, because they were helping more when I was driving,” said Bruff. ”
Scott Brittain and Omari Peterkin each had 13 points and six rebounds while Morris chipped in with 11 points.
Maine led by as many as 10 points in the first half thanks to a 7-0 scoring run with six minutes left, but couldn’t build on or hold it as BU scored eight straight before Bruff’s basket off a spin-fake in the high post with two seconds left ended the half.
TERRIERS 65, BLACK BEARS 63
Maine (5-10) Boston U. (4-10)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Reed 11 21 1 2 29 Lowe 5 13 5 17
Bruff 5 9 1 2 11 Peterkin 6 14 1 3 13
Sheets 2 6 0 0 6 Brittain 4 13
Socoby 2 4 0 0 5 Morris 4 9 11
Andre 2 3 0 0 4 Strong 2 5 5
Bernal 1 5 0 0 3 Johnson 1 2 2
Bofia 1 3 1 2 3 Sirutis 0 0 2
Ahveniemi 0 0 2 2 2 Macon 0 2 2
Konate 0 1 0 0
Totals 24 51 5 8 63 Totals 22 53 15 22 65
Maine 33 63
Boston University 36 65
3-pt. goals – Maine (10-21): Bernal 1-1, Reed 6-12, Sheets 2-5, Socoby 1-2, Tchekane Bofia 0-1; BU (6-18): Brittain 0-2, Morris 3-5, Lowe 2-6, Strong 1-4, Johnson 0-1
Attendance: 514
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