PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Providence College Friars took the lead for good with a 12-0 scoring run midway through the first half and never looked back en route to a 78-48 men’s basketball victory over the University of Maine Tuesday night.

The Friars, who knocked off No. 18 Arkansas earlier this season, hit two 3-pointers during the momentum-seizing run and – after a 6-0 run by Maine – never led by less than nine points the rest of the way.

“They force a lot of turnovers. We hung in for awhile offensively, but we had a couple turnovers, they went off on some spurts, and got themselves comfortably ahead,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward.

Junior Geoff McDermott led the 4-1 Friars with 17 points, 13 rebounds and five assists. The 6-foot-8 guard-forward hit six of his first eight shots and finished 8-for-11 (72.7 percent) from the field.

“He’s a very hard guard to match up with, but they also have three very good perimeter guys shooting over 40 percent from 3-point range,” Woodward said.

Brian Andre led the 3-4 Black Bears with 17 points and 11 rebounds. It was the second double-double of the season for the senior center from Bingham. Redshirt junior guard Jason Hight of Westbrook had nine points on 3-for-4 3-point shooting, and six rebounds, but also committed six turnovers.

Sophomore guards Mark Socoby of Houlton and Junior Bernal were held way below their season scoring averages. Socoby (13.5 per game) finished with three and Bernal (12.5) had four.

“They know who they want to key on and they have the ability to do it,” said Woodward. “They made it hard for [Socoby] to get some clean shots off all night.”

Bernal didn’t play in the second half due to leg cramps.

Sophomore forward Jordan Cook of Hampden had eight points and four rebounds, but all eight of his points came in the first half.

“I thought he played well the whole game. He got some of the same shots and had some

layups in the second half, but the ball just rolled out,” said Woodward. “I thought that was very big for him in terms of us getting some other guys to step up offensively, and Jay Hight did very well in Junior’s absence.”

Providence junior guard Weyinmi Efejuku finished with 14 points and four steals. Sophomore guard Brian McKenzie had 13 points.

The Bears committed 23 turnovers to Providence’s 12, were outshot by the Friars 42.6 percent to 35.2, and outrebounded 40-35.

Big East member Providence led 37-25 at halftime and built its lead up as high as 34 points in the second half.

The Friars had the edge over the Bears in points in the paint (32-28), off the break (16-2), off turnovers (20-10), and off the bench (25-7). Maine had a 20-16 edge in second chance points.

“We would have loved to make this more competitive, but it’s the first time a lot of these guys have played an opponent at this level,” Woodward said. “We just couldn’t match them offensively in many sequences.”

FRIARS 78, BLACK BEARS 48

Maine (3-4) Providence (4-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Cook 4 8 0 0 8 McDermott 8 11 17

Andre 7 14 3 6 17 Kale 1 2 6

Hight 3 5 0 0 9 Xavier 2 9 6

Bernal 2 8 0 0 4 Williams 3 10

Socoby 1 8 0 0 3 McKenzie 5 13

Hanzlik 0 0 0 0 0 Kellogg 0 0 0

McNally 1 3 0 0 2 Brooks 2 5 4

Costigan 0 4 0 0 0 Efejuku 5 13 14

Bofia 1 4 3 4 5 Peterson 1 4

Baudinet 0 0 0

Hanke 1 1 0 2

Burch 0 0 0 0

Hall 1 3 0 2

Totals 19 54 6 10 48 Totals 29 68 11 16 78

Maine 25 48

Providence 37 78

3-pt. goals – Maine (4-11): Hight 3-4, Socoby 1-6, Costigan 0-1; Providence (9-29): McKenzie 3-6, Xavier 2-8, Williams 2-8, McDermott 1-1, Efejuku 1-5, Brooks 0-1

Attendance: 5,263