ORONO – As the University of Maine men’s basketball team heads into its season, the Black Bears finally got a chance to face someone other than themselves Friday night.

The Bears are hoping their 80-59 exhibition victory over Dalhousie at Memorial Gym will be enough of a test for Monday’s opener against Richmond in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in Memphis, Tenn.

“We wanted to work on a lot of things on the offensive and defensive end, see where we’re at,” UMaine head coach Ted Woodward said. “There’s going to be a lot we can take from this. … We’re tired of playing against ourselves. It’s nice to be playing against another team.”

Maine certainly had well-rounded offensive and rebounding efforts, which led to a lot of good results from its freshmen.

One of those newcomers, Robby Hanzlik, scored a team-high 18 points on 6-for-10 shooting that contributed to the Bears’ 51.8 percent from the floor. He also hit all four of his free-throw attempts, which was another area in which the Bears performed well – they made 18 of 20 foul shots (90 percent).

Hanzlik, a 6-foot-3 guard, also posted four assists and three steals.

Freshman Sean McNally of Gardiner tossed in 11 points to go with seven rebounds, while redshirt freshman Sean Costigan of South Portland had a team-high eight rebounds.

Hampden sophomore Jordan Cook added 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting, while senior Brian Andre of Bingham scored 10.

“Our team’s pretty deep and pretty balanced,” Cook said. “I think that’s going to be the case most nights.”

The Black Bears dominated the rebounding with 41 to 27 for the Tigers of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Houlton sophomore Mark Socoby had seven while Cook had five.

Maine had a 37-24 halftime lead, but it didn’t come without some early struggles including nine first-half turnovers. Part of the Bears’ problems with flow was likely the absence of point guard Junior Bernal, who is out with an undisclosed injury.

Woodward said the Bears were being cautious with their sophomore starter and he’ll be ready for Monday’s game.

Dalhousie got off to a fast start as Drew Stratton and Germain Bendegue each hit two midrange jumpers followed by a Simon Farine 3-pointer for a 13-8 lead. McNally put back an offensive rebound later to give Maine its first lead.

“I think it took us a minute to get ourselves ready,” Cook said. “Coach called a timeout and told us to pick up our defensive intensity. I guess that’s just all we needed to do.”

The Tigers went ahead 15-14 with about eight minutes left before the Black Bears made their move.

McNally scored off a feed from Philippe Tchekane Bofia to retake the lead. A Socoby 3-pointer, followed by a Cook leaner, gave the Black Bears some separation at 27-21.

Andre got inside for a basket, followed by 3-pointers from Hanzlik and McNally, a 6-foot-7 forward who got off his shot with just a few seconds left on the shot clock for the 13-point halftime advantage.

“I think we did a pretty good job taking our offense off our defense,” Woodward said. “We had a number of stops in those sequences, some rebounds and some steals, and that really helps your offense.”

Dalhousie shot just 39.7 percent overall.

Bendegue led Dalhousie with 18 points and seven rebounds.

BLACK BEARS 80, TIGERS 59

Dalhousie Maine

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Bendegue 7 13 4 7 18 Barnies 0 2 0

Stratton 4 8 1 2 9 McNally 4 6 11

Farine 2 10 4 4 9 TchknBfia 2 6

Norris 2 6 0 1 4 Hight 1 4 4

Sullivan 0 1 0 0 0 Socoby 3 9 9

Campbell 4 7 0 0 10 Hanzlik 6 10 18

Wang 0 0 0 0 0 Uhrin 0 1 0 0

Nortmann 0 1 0 0 0 Andre 3 4 10

Walcott 0 4 0 0 0 Costigan 2 4

deWinter 4 7 0 0 8 Cook 7 8 16

Veit 0 1 1 2 1 Woodbrey 1 2 2

Beattie 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 23 58 10 16 59 Totals 29 57 18 20 80

Dalhousie 24 59

Maine 37 80

3-pt. goals – Dalhousie (3-11): Campbell 2-2, Farine 1-5, Sullivan 0-1, deWinter 0-1, Walcott 0-2; Maine (4-14): Hanzlik 2-5, McNally 1-1, Socoby 1-2, Tchekane Bofia 0-1, Hight 0-1, Uhrin 0-1, Costigan 0-3

Attendance: 300 (est.)