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ORONO – The return of its inside scoring game – along with that of a player from injury – added up to a big win for the University of Maine men’s basketball team Saturday.
Sophomore guard Junior Bernal, the primary beneficiary of both, scored a game-high 19 points to lead the Black Bears to an 86-58 victory over New Jersey Institute of Technology at Alfond Arena.
“Every time we start off down low, something good happens and that was our focus today,” said Bernal. “We had open lanes.”
Open lanes Bernal used so often, he could have earned lots of points on a frequent driver card as he knifed into the blocks and the post, either scoring on layups, drawing fouls, doing both or simply dishing off to an open teammate.
“We were unable to stop a lot of their penetration because our interior defense was not up to snuff,” said former Syracuse University star player Wendell Davis, who has been NJIT’s interim head coach since head coach Jim Casciano took a leave of absence to attend to a personal health matter three weeks ago.
Bernal scored 13 of his 19 points in the paint, or on fouls resulting from shots in the paint. Of those 13, eight came via fast breaks.
“With Bernal penetrating and their good shooters on the wing, it’s a deadly combination,” Davis said. “And we have small guards so it’s harder to see over their defense with their big guards.”
Maine’s guards seemed even bigger with the return of 6-foot-7 forward Troy Barnies, who missed the first seven games after fracturing a bone in his left wrist in an exhibition game.
“We have a lot of depth with him being out there, but I think you see what Barnies does,” said Maine head coach Ted Woodward. “He makes you big and allows Junior to be a point guard. Plus he’s versatile. He can cover any position on the perimeter, post, get rebounds, and provide energy.”
The freshman from Auburn wasted little time contributing as he grabbed an offensive rebound less than a minute after entering the game, and had a hand in five straight Maine points with two offensive rebounds and two assists in a 25-second span to help Maine take a 13-5 lead.
Barnies finished with eight rebounds, seven points, three steals, two assists and a blocked shot in 23 minutes.
The Bears evened their record at 4-4 while keeping the Highlanders winless at 0-8 in their second Division I season.
Woodward was especially pleased to see a more balanced scoring effort.
“Even after the Providence game, I thought we had some other guys look to take shots and give us offense by being a little more aggressive,” Woodward said. “We have a number of guys who can do some things and put the ball in the basket and we saw that today.”
Jason Hight, one of those guys Woodward wants to see more offense from, delivered with 12 points, and a game-high six assists. The junior guard from Westbrook also had three steals.
Senior center Brian Andre of Bingham continued his solid post play with 11 points and six rebounds. When the Highlanders tried to concentrate on him, sophomore forward-center Jordan Cook of Hampden made them pay as he hit 4-of-8 shots – three of which came when he was left unguarded at the top of the key.
“It was nice to be left open and it was definitely nice to be the bigger team and take advantage of size advantages,” said Cook, who also had four blocked shots.
Nesho Milosevic, a junior forward from Montenegro, led NJIT with 18 points and 16 rebounds despite being blocked three times by Cook.
Each team finished with 39 total rebounds, but Maine committed eight fewer turnovers (16 to 24) and outshot NJIT 51.7 percent to 27.5 from the field.
“We weren’t shooting well, but we weren’t getting that many shots, either,” Davis said.
BLACK BEARS 86, HIGHLANDERS 58
New Jersey Tech (0-8) Maine (4-4)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Peters 1 5 0 0 3 Socoby 2 6 7
Milosevic 6 17 6 7 18 Cook 4 8 8
Stonkus 0 3 5 8 5 Andre 4 5 11
Wilson 1 4 5 6 7 Hight 3 8 12
J. Garris 2 5 3 3 7 Bernal 6 11 11 19
Epps 0 2 0 0 0 Barnies 3 4 1 7
Magnus 1 3 0 0 3 Hanzlik 0 1 1
Jefferson 0 0 2 2 2 Uhrin 0 0 0
Skema 1 2 5 6 7 McNally 2 5 7
Lyn 2 9 0 0 4 Costigan 2 3 4
Edwards 0 1 2 4 2 Peay 2 2 4
Bofia 2 5 2 6
Totals 14 51 28 36 58 Totals 30 58 23 37 86
NJIT 20 58
Maine 39 86
3-pt. goals – New Jersey Tech (2-14): Peters 1-2, Magnus 1-3, Milosevic 0-1, Wilson 0-1, J. Garris 0-2, Epps 0-2, Lyn 0-3; Maine (3-9): Hight 2-4, Socoby 1-4, Costigan 0-1
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