ALBANY, N.Y. – For the fourth time in their last four games, the University of Maine men led much of Thursday night’s basketball contest but couldn’t hold the lead down the stretch.

The Black Bears’ frustrating opening to the America East season continued as the University at Albany rallied for an 82-73 victory.

It’s the sixth straight loss for the 5-11 Bears, now 0-4 in AE play. Defending AE champ Albany is now 10-6 (3-1).

“In the second half, we came out aggressively and didn’t hit a scoring drought like we’ve been doing,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward. “It just got to the point where Jamar [Wilson] hit a couple of big, back-to-back 3’s and that really got them going, plus we weren’t able to get to the line as much in the second half.”

Senior guard Wilson, the 2005-06 AE player of the year, led the Great Danes with 31 points – 20 of which came in the second half – and also had six rebounds and four assists.

“I think he’s always a lot of the difference for them and he certainly was tonight,” Woodward said. “They didn’t go ahead until there were eight minutes to go in the game. It went from us up two to us down four in just about a minute with him hitting a couple big threes and us missing a good open three in between.”

Albany took a 68-64 lead when Wilson hit back-to-back 3-pointers with approximately eight minutes left in the game. The Danes pushed their lead to 70-65 when Jason Siggers hit two free throws with 4:27 to go. Wilson hit a third 3-pointer to put Albany up 73-65.

Senior forward Chris Bruff led the Bears with 23 points and six rebounds. Senior guard Jon Sheets had 19 points two minutes into the second half, but was held scoreless the rest of the way.

Freshman guard Mark Socoby from Houlton scored 16 points in his first start this season and senior guard Junior Bernal chipped in with 11.

Freshman forward Jordan Cook, who hasn’t played since being bothered by a stomach flu while coming back from a game in Nevada Dec. 28, impressed Woodward in his return to action.

“I really like what Jordan gave us in there with 17 minutes. He didn’t score but he did good things and played good defense,” he said. “He played very well, considering his down time.”

Jason Siggers had 18 points for Albany while Brian Lillis had 13 points and seven rebounds. Brian Connelly added 10 and grabbed five boards.

Woodward said he isn’t worried about his players going into a funk over their frustrating start.

“I really trust our players and I think they’ll continue to improve. I don’t think they’ll have this affect them adversely,” he said. “We’re a young team, but they know how close we are to being a few points over the top in all our last few games.”

GREAT DANES 82, BLACK BEARS 73

Maine (5-11) Albany (10-6)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Bruff 9 15 4 5 23 Ross 0 0 0

Sheets 6 11 2 3 19 Siggers 6 11 18

Bernal 4 8 3 5 11 Anderson 0 0

Reed 1 12 0 0 2 Iati 0 1 0 0

Socoby 4 10 7 8 16 Lillis 3 5 13

Andre 1 2 0 0 2 J.Wilson 11 19 6 7 31

Cook 0 0 0 0 0 B.Wilson 1 3 3

Cavangh 0 0 0 0 0 Covington 2 7

Bofia 0 0 0 0 0 Connelly 5 11 0 0 10

Gifford 0 0 0 0

Totals 25 58 16 21 73 Totals 28 52 21 26 82

Maine 43 73

Albany 41 82

3-pt. goals – Maine (7-18): Sheets 5-9, Bruff 1-1, Socoby 1-3, Reed 0-5; Albany (5-13): J. Wilson 3-6, B. Wilson 1-1, Siggers 1-5, Iati 0-1

Attendance: 2,472