Andre, Cook help UMaine roll past Fisher

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ORONO – After losing their first two games in the final minute, the University of Maine men kept no one in suspense Tuesday night, handling NAIA Division II Fisher College with ease in their basketball home opener.

The Black Bears handed Boston-based Fisher an 81-36 loss at Alfond Arena in a tuneup for a Division I schedule starting with home game against St. Francis of Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., Saturday.

Maine used balanced scoring, stifling man-to-man defensive pressure, solid shooting and another superior rebounding effort to collar the Terriers.

“I think I was most pleased with the multiple contributions we got tonight. That’s the biggest thing,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward. “When we put our second group in, and I think we have nine starters, they gave us a huge lift.”

Senior center Brian Andre led the way for the 1-2 Bears with 16 points, seven rebounds and three blocks in 15 minutes.

“We approach every game the same way, but after dropping two close ones, we wanted to get this one today and improve on mistakes we made last week,” Andre said.

Sophomore forward Jordan Cook of Hampden had 15 points and seven rebounds. Freshman forward Sean McNally of Gardiner contributed 11 points and 10 boards.

“We wanted to improve on our offensive execution since our last games,” said McNally. “Down in Memphis, we didn’t really get the ball in the post as much as we wanted, so we’ve been working on different plays to get it in and have our big guys run the floor more.”

Guard Robby Hanzlik made a game-high seven steals and dished out four assists for Maine. Jason Hight of Westbrook also had a solid night in the backcourt with six assists and four steals.

“Today we took care of the ball a lot better. Last weekend we had a lot of turnovers, but tonight we did a better job of getting to spots and hitting the open guy,” Hight said.

Junior Bernal had nine points, four steals, two assists, two blocks, and three rebounds.

Fisher kept things close with Maine for the first seven minutes of the game, but a 21-0 UM scoring run over the next eight minutes gave the Black Bears what would prove to be an insurmountable lead. McNally helped fuel the run with three straight buckets and nine of his 11 first-half points.

Maine pushed its lead even more by scoring 15 of the next 18 points after the first minute of the second half, taking a 56-25 lead with 12:49 left to play. The Terriers would never get closer than 28 points after that.

The Bears outrebounded the Terriers 54-46 overall (22-14 offensively), outshot them from the field 40.7 percent to 24.6, forced 35 turnovers while committing just 13 themselves, and blocked 11 shots to Fisher’s five. Although it was a match that Maine was supposed to win big on paper, Woodward was still happy with his team’s overall effort.

“I think it’s one of those things where we haven’t played a game for seven days and we did what we were supposed to do, and that’s fine,” said Woodward. “It’s just nice to be able to use different combinations and be home and Fisher’s been a good program in the Sunrise Conference.”

Fisher coach David Lindberg, whose Terriers are defending conference champs, is from Ellsworth.

No Fisher player scored in double digits, but Louis Williams led the 1-4 Terriers with nine points. Treva Holmes had 10 rebounds.

BLACK BEARS 81, TERRIERS 36

Fisher (1-4) Maine (1-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Holmes 2 8 1 2 5 Bofia 3 11 6

Gaffney 1 2 1 2 3 Andre 7 12 16

Brown 0 8 0 1 0 Hanzlik 1 10 2

Rice 3 9 0 0 7 Bernal 3 7 3 9

Williams 3 13 1 2 9 Socoby 3 12 6

Kulowitch 0 1 0 0 0 Hight 1 2 3

D. Hall 0 1 1 2 1 Uhrin 2 4 5

S. Hall 1 3 0 0 2 McNally 5 8 11

Inoa 0 0 0 0 0 Woodbry 0 2 1 1

Morales 0 0 0 0 0 Costigan 3 7

Avila 0 1 0 0 0 Cook 7 9 15

Brown 0 2 0 0 0

Nance 1 3 0 0 2

Holmes 3 6 0 0 7

Totals 14 57 4 9 36 Totals 35 86 14 81

Fisher 21 36

Maine 41 81

3-pt. goals – Fisher (4-16): Williams 2-5, Rice 1-2, Holmes 1-4, Avila 0-1, Brown 0-4; Maine (3-18): Hight 1-2, Uhrin 1-1, Costigan 1-4, Hanzlik 0-4, Socoby 0-3, McNally 0-1, Woodbrey 0-1, Bofia 0-2

Attendance: 1,148