UMaine rallies past Seawolves Black Bears win 4th straight

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STONY BROOK, N.Y. – The University of Maine men ran their winning streak to four games Thursday night with a come-from-behind 74-66 basketball win over Stony Brook University.

The Black Bears improved to 9-11 overall and 4-4 in America East conference play despite falling behind 22-8 to the Seawolves in the first half.

“None of us were really pleased with how we started out the game,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward. “We looked sloppy, gave up easy plays, missed layups…. We just were not clicking.”

Senior guard and co-captain Kevin Reed led the way for the Bears with 21 points and freshman guard Junior Bernal, a former Maine Central Institute Postgrad, chipped in with a season-high 19.

The Seawolves outrebounded the Bears 46-28 overall and outscored them 21-15 in second-chance points, but Maine still held a 36-26 advantage in points in the paint.

Maine did outshoot an AE opponent for the eighth time in eight games, 50.9 percent to 34.4 from the field.

The Bears came back by scoring 17 of the final 22 points in the first half.

“We called a couple timeouts and were able to pick it up,” Woodward said. “They had 22 points in the first 101/2 minutes of the second half and then five the last 91/2.

“We just started playing defense we’re capable of.”

Stony Brook also outscored Maine 24-13 in points off the bench as Mitchell Beauford scored 12 in 19 minutes.

Ricky Lucas led the way for the 7-13 Seawolves (2-6 in AE) with 22 points. Emanuel Neto had a double-double with 13 points and 16 rebounds.

Woodward was unable to put his finger on Maine’s slow start and wasn’t sure it was because of a week’s layoff since the last game.

“I don’t know. It wasn’t that long a layoff,” Woodward said. “Sometimes when you’re on the road a lot, it grinds on you.

“The good thing is our guys bounce back. They don’t get too up or too down. There’s just no panic in them, whether we’re 0-4 in the league or down 22-8 in a game.”

Philippe Tchekane Bofia came off the bench for 10 points and senior forward Chris Bruff had the same point total. Bernal led the Bears with four assists.

“I thought it was a pretty balanced effort,” said Woodward. “Kevin led us when we needed to be led. Phil’s offense was huge, and Brian [Andre] gave us some quality minutes off the bench as well.”

BLACK BEARS 74, SEAWOLVES 66

Maine (9-11) Stony Brook (7-13)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Bruff 5 8 0 1 10 Popoko 2 6 5

Sheets 2 8 4 5 9 Neto 4 9 13

Bernal 8 11 3 3 19 Castllnos 1 2

Reed 5 14 8 9 21 Lucas 6 16 5 22

Ahvnnmi 1 1 0 0 2 Robinson 0 0

Socoby 1 3 1 2 3 Cox 0 1 2

Andre 0 0 0 0 0 Wright 1 7 2

Bofia 5 8 0 0 10 Beauford 5 11 2 3 12

Pitt 0 0 0 0

Bamiro 2 5 2 6

Jones 0 0 0 0

Vantrpool 0 0 0

Cnninghm 1 4 2

Totals 27 53 16 20 74 Totals 22 64 16 26 66

Maine 25 74

Stony Brook 27 66

3-pt. goals – Maine (4-17): Reed 3-8, Sheets 1-7, Socoby 0-2; Stony Brook (6-18): Lucas 5-9, Popoko 1-2, Robinson 0-1, Beauford 0-1, Cunningham 0-2, Wright 0-3

Attendance: 1,346