BOSTON – Judging from the end result whenever things weren’t going as planned for the University of Maryland Baltimore County, the Retrievers might have been better off without a game plan for Saturday afternoon’s America East quarterfinal.

The fifth-seeded Retrievers capitalized on confusion to eliminate the No. 4 University of Maine men from the conference tournament with a 70-61 victory at Agganis Arena.

Call it organized chaos.

“That’s a good way to put it,” UMBC head coach Randy Monroe said after his Retrievers survived a back-and-forth affair featuring 17 lead changes and 12 tie scores.

If that’s the case, UMBC sophomore Jay Greene was the most chaotically organized.

The pint-sized point guard seemed to be at his best when things were at their worst for his team.

After torching Maine for 16 of UMBC’s 32 points in the first half, it seemed the Black Bears had a handle on the 5-foot-8, 160-pound Greene, who was held to three points on one hoop and a foul shot in the first 18 minutes and 20 seconds of the second half.

“I think they focused a little more on me in the second half,” Greene said. “I knew they were going to do that, so I wasn’t looking for my shot as much. I was trying to get everyone else involved.”

He got almost everyone on the court involved in two key plays in the final 11 minutes. The first was a scramble for a loose ball on the right wing with the game tied 48-48. Maine’s Kevin Reed seemingly had the ball stolen, but Greene managed to come up with it as bodies dove all over the floor and dished a pretty bounce pass to Matt Spadafora on the right block for an easy layup and a foul. The play seemed to spark a 6-2 UMBC scoring run. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but in a game in which neither team led by more than six points for the first 391/2 minutes, it was huge.

The second one came with the score tied again (61-all) and 62 seconds left.

The Bears again seemed to have stolen the ball, but it came loose almost as soon as UMBC lost the handle and another scramble ensued near the top of the key. Greene came up with the ball and sped into the lane.

“It was kind of a broken-down play. I was just trying to make something happen,” explained Greene (21 points, six assists). “There aren’t many times I’m in the lane like that, but they found me and I made the basket.”

He also made the free throw he was awarded after he was fouled to extend an 11-0 scoring run.

“I thought we had shots at it in all those plays,” said a clearly dejected Reed, whose eighth AE playoff game ended his stellar UMaine career. “They happened to get a hand on it and make a play.”

The three-point lead forced Maine to foul and put UMBC in the bonus, but the Retrievers shot 7-for-7 from the line in the final minute and their defense was even better, holding Maine scoreless for the last 3 minutes, and 14 seconds.

“We did a lot of the things we tried to do today. UMBC was just a little bit better than us in that last three minutes,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward, whose Bears wind up 11-18 overall and 7-10 in conference play.

Of those things they did, the Bears outrebounded the Retrievers 13-5 offensively and 37-28 overall; outscored them 34-26 in the paint and 15-6 in second-chance points. They also had balanced scoring with five players in double figures.

Freshman guard Junior Bernal led the way with 15 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.

“They tried to deny a lot of the perimeter, so I just felt like I could go inside more and that opened up more of my game,” said the former Maine Central Institute prep star.

Jon Sheets had 14 points on 50 percent shooting from the field and Reed finished with 12 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists.

Senior forward Chris Bruff had 10 points, eight boards and three assists while Philippe Tcheckane Bofia had 10 points and five boards off the bench.

Sophomore guard Thomas Young picked up where Greene left off in the second half by getting all of his 13 points and seven rebounds in the second half after not even taking a shot in the first.

“Young made some huge plays in that second half,” Woodward said. “He made a couple of offensive rebound put-backs after we forced a miss, he scored a couple times in the post, and they did a good job going to him because he made plays down the stretch.”

RETRIEVERS 70 BLACK BEARS 61

UMBC (12-18) Maine (12-18)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Fry 1 4 0 0 2 Bruff 4 12 2 10

Housman 5 8 1 2 11 Avhnniemi 0 0

Greene 7 9 3 4 21 Sheets 5 10 14

Pugh 5 9 1 2 14 Bernal 7 10 0 15

Young 4 7 5 6 13 Reed 5 16 12

Spadafora 1 3 0 1 2 Socoby 0 0 0

Hodges 2 19 2 2 7 Bofia 5 12 10

Eshtedoho 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 25 51 12 17 70 Totals 26 60 61

Md.-Baltimore County 32 70

Maine 32 61

3-pt. goals – UMBC (8-19): Greene 4-6, Pugh 3-7, Hodges 1-5, Spadafora 0-1; Maine (7-20): Sheets 4-9, Reed 2-9, Bernal 1-1, Bofia 0-1

Attendance: 2,015