ORONO – The University of Maine men’s basketball team went first in Sunday afternoon’s annual Blue-White intrasquad scrimmages at Alfond Arena, followed by first-year coach Cindy Blodgett’s women.

Next week, the Maine men will go first at the nation level.

The Black Bears will be involved in the first NCAA Div. I college basketball game of the season when they participate in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer tournament in Memphis, Tenn.

The Bears will take on Richmond Nov. 5 at 4 p.m. to open their season, and that of the rest of the country.

“We’re just eager to start playing,” said senior Brian Andre of Bingham, who had a game-best 14 points and six rebounds. “We’ve been really gearing up for the first game, playing hard in preseason, doing a lot of workouts. I think we’ll be ready to go.”

The Blue team won both men’s and women’s games, although players switched jerseys at the breaks. The men’s score was 44-37 and the women’s was 43-42.

Andre is the only senior on the men’s team this year.

Junior Bernal, a sophomore returning starter, scored 12 points. Hampden sophomore Jordan Cook added seven points and five rebounds.

A host of freshmen for both the men and the women got in their first action at the Alfond.

On the men’s side, that group included Gardiner’s Sean McNally (five points, five rebounds) and Auburn’s Troy Barnies (three points, four rebounds).

Those players will be key as the men try to rebuild after the loss of standout guard Kevin Reed.

“I think we have a lot of good young players on this team but we’re going to need them to step up as soon as they can,” said Houlton native Mark Socoby, a sophomore who scored 13 points. “We lost a lot last year so for them to fill in the roles will be a big thing.”

The men, who played three 12-minute periods, struggled at times to make shots going 29-for-75 from the floor.

Better offensive rhythm will come, said Maine coach Ted Woodward, who was pleased with other aspects of the game Sunday.

“… Defensively, I certainly liked the way some guys stepped up in different situations,” he said. “I do like our guys’ energy, the way they go after the basketball on the boards with some of the sequences we saw.”

In the women’s game, more former Maine high school stars made their Alfond Arena debuts in the scrimmage, which featured two 20-minute halves of running time.

“It was really exciting to get out here,” said Biddeford freshman Emily Rousseau, who scored nine points. “We’ve been looking forward to it.”

Rousseau wasn’t the only freshman who looked good.

Magdala Johnson had a game-high 14 points and had five rebounds, Christina Mosher of Farmington pulled down a game-best 10 rebounds and Tanna Ross of Newburgh scored eight points.

“They’re going to play. They’re definitely going to play,” Blodgett said. “You can see Emily and Tanna are very comfortable and they can do a lot of different things.”

The sophomore class fared well, too. Amanda Tewksbury added 13 points and Brittany Boser had 10. Bingham’s Kristin Baker had six assists and four steals.

The Black Bears had five different players combined to hit eight 3-pointers. Rousseau hit two 3-pointers on consecutive possessions in the first half, including one a split-second before the shot clock went off.

“I thought we ran the break pretty well, but we can definitely work on our defense,” Rousseau said.

With the graduation of all of last year’s starters except for lone senior Kris Younan, who had nine points, nine rebounds and three assists Sunday, Blodgett is still putting together a top five before the Bears’ Nov. 9 opener at Clemson.

“I’ve told them, every day in practice they’re fighting for a spot,” Blodgett said. “I don’t have five yet. We’ll see what happens the next few days of practice leading up to the exhibition game [Thursday] and go from there.”

Blue-White Scrimmages

Men

Barnies 1-0-3, Hanzlik 1-2-5, Hight 3-1-7, Bernal 4-4-12, Uhrin, Owes, McNally 2-1-5, Socoby 4-3-13, Andre 5-4-14, Costigan 1-0-2, Cook 3-1-7, Bofia 4-1-9, Woodbrey 2-0-4

3-pt. goals: Socoby 2, Barnies, Hanzlik

End first period: White 13-11; end second period: Blue 25-21

Women

Younan 3-2-9, Baker 2-0-4, Ross 3-0-8, Boser 1-8-10, Johnson 5-2-14, Rousseau 3-1-9, Tewksbury 4-4-13, Kilmurray 1-1-3, Mosher 1-2-4, Vaitkute 4-1-9, Bratishko 1-0-2

3-pt. goals: Ross 2, Johnson 2, Rousseau 2, Younan, Tewksbury

Halftime: Blue 22-19