ORONO – University of Albany men’s basketball coach Will Brown was worried before his team’s 71-55 victory over the University of Maine at Alfond Arena Wednesday night.

His Great Danes were making one of their longest road trips on their America East conference schedule and they were playing a Black Bear team that had won six of its last seven games.

On top of that, the Danes were trying not to get distracted while everyone and their brother on campus focused on Albany’s big rematch with AE-leading Vermont on Sunday.

“This game concerned me because it was our third game in five days and because of how good Maine’s been playing,” said Brown. “And these guys have been getting calls, and I’ve been getting e-mails about Sunday’s game and people needing tickets, so it’s tough.”

The Great Danes looked anything but tired or distracted, however, as they beat back several Maine runs, followed up slow starts with strong finishes to both halves, and led the game for the last 28 1/2 minutes en route to their triumph.

Albany dominated the Black Bears in a way no other AE team has been able to this season. The Danes out-rebounded Maine 18-10 offensively and 30-19 defensively. They outshot the Bears 28 percent to 15 from 3-point range and 46.4 percent to 34.5 overall from the floor. Both percentages were Maine’s lowest in a conference game this season.

“That’s the story of the game right there,” said Brown. “I mean, you really have to lock down defensively and force them to guard you for long periods of time if you’re going to beat them.”

Maine coach Ted Woodward was visibly frustrated and perturbed by his team’s performance.

“They outplayed us. They out-hustled us They outworked us,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward. “I mean, they deserve a lot of credit for the way they played us, but this was not one of our better efforts and we did not play very well, especially on the boards.”

The Great Danes (18-7 overall) remain second in the conference with an 11-2 record. Maine drops to 11-13 overall and 6-6 in AE play.

This marks the third straight year the Great Danes have swept the regular season series with Maine.

Senior guard Jamar Wilson showed why he won conference player of the year honors last year by – at times – almost single-handedly holding the Black Bears at bay.

Maine came out of halftime strong and scored 13 of the first 17 points to pull within four points of Albany with 14 minutes to play. The Bears were down just five points with 71/2 minutes left despite eight straight points scored by Wilson. The problem for Albany was those eight points came over an eight-minute span.

“I think it’s a lot easier to score when you’re playing defense, and during that whole eight-minute span, we did the job defensively even though we were stagnant offensively,” Wilson said.

There wasn’t anything stagnant about Wilson’s game. Despite playing his first game without a knee brace he had to use after spraining his medial collateral ligament last month, the 6-foot-1 guard lit Maine up for a game-high 24 points while also grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out a game-high six assists.

Still, both Wilson and Brown credited team defense for this win.

“The biggest thing for us was the job we did on [Jon] Sheets,” said Brown. “We tried to limit his looks and force him inside the 3-point line. He killed us at Albany with 19 at the half.

“Today, I think he was 0-for-6 from 3-point range but I think four of those came when the game was basically open. We did a really good job on not getting him any open looks.”

Maine’s senior guard, who was guarded by Wilson and Jon Iati, finished with two points on two foul shots.

Senior forward Chris Bruff led the Bears with 13 points. He also had five rebounds, three steals, two blocks and an assist. Leading scorer Kevin Reed had 12 points and eight boards while freshman guard Junior Bernal finished with 10 points.

Albany turned a fragile lead into a comfortable one with a 13-2 run that gave them a 60-44 lead. It began with Wilson hitting one of two foul shots. Still, Wilson’s consistent offense eventually jump-started the Danes and four different players scored in the game-defining run.

Brent Wilson had a double-double for Albany with 14 points and 10 rebounds while Brian Lillis finished with 10 points, seven boards and four assists.

GREAT DANES 71, BLACK BEARS 55

Albany (18-7) Maine (11-13)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Siggers 2 10 2 2 7 Bruff 5 8 13

Wilson 5 14 2 2 14 Ahvniemi 1 3

Covington 0 0 0 0 0 Sheets 0 6 2

Lillis 3 5 3 5 10 Bernal 4 12 10

Wilson 9 17 4 10 24 Reed 3 13 12

Ross 0 0 0 0 0 Socoby 2 5 1 6

Knight 0 1 0 0 0 Cook 2 4 5

Yocum 1 1 0 0 2 Bofia 2 6 4

Anderson 0 0 0 0 0

Itai 1 3 0 0 3

Connellly 3 3 1 2 7

Gifford 2 2 0 0 4

Totals 26 56 12 21 71 Totals 19 55 14 21 55

Albany 37 71

Maine 25 55

3-pt. goals – Albany (7-25): Siggers 1-4, Wilson 2-9, Lillis 1-1, Wilson 3-7, Knight 0-1, Itai 1-3; Maine (3-20): Sheets 0-6, Reed 2-9, Socoby 1-3, Tchekane Bofia 0-2

Attendance: 1,370