CASTINE – Coach Chris Murphy’s Maine Maritime Academy men’s basketball team already had its work cut out for it Tuesday night against a solid, veteran Bowdoin College squad.

But without the services of star player Derek DiFrederico, who is nursing an injury, the Mariners’ task took on Herculean proportions.

The Bowdoin College Polar Bears started strong and effectively put the game out of reach in the first half with an 18-0 scoring run en route to a 78-42 victory at Margaret Chase Smith Gymnasium.

“They’re very experienced and they’ve played some quality competition, so this wasn’t a great matchup for us,” said Murphy, whose Mariners dropped to 1-4. “The kind of pressure they put on you, you can almost see the kids wilt sometimes.”

That was evident statistically as the Mariners committed 17 turnovers and shot 29.2 percent from the field for the game.

The fact that Bowdoin turned the ball over just nine times while shooting a scalding 50.9 percent from the field only made matters worse for MMA.

“Our coach wanted us to get out on the fast break from the beginning. We also wanted to be deliberate on offense and work inside-out,” said Bowdoin senior tri-captain Andrew Sargeantson. “We did a good job of getting some easy buckets off steals to get us going, and we did a pretty good job of boxing out and controlling the boards.”

Bowdoin outrebounded MMA 35-23 defensively and 43-27 overall.

Sargeantson, a 6-foot-4 forward, led the way with a double-double (16 points, 10 rebounds) in 26 minutes of work.

“He was tough all night offensively and he played probably the best defense of anyone on the team, too,” said Bowdoin coach Tim Gilbride.

That’s saying a lot, considering how well the Bears defended. Bowdoin’s man-to-man defensive pressure helped keep MMA scoreless for a span of 7 minutes, 41 seconds in the first half while Bowdoin went on its 18-0 scoring run and took a 35-10 lead with 40 seconds left before halftime.

“Physically, we just couldn’t get anywhere with the ball. They basically took everything away from us,” Murphy said. “We’re still fundamentally weak in some areas.”

DiFrederico, a senior guard from Millinocket, was held out of the game as a precaution after rolling his ankle in a game last Saturday.

“He probably could have played tonight, but we have our first conference game next and wanted to make sure he was 100 percent for that,” Murphy explained. “Bryant Ciomei started in his spot tonight.”

“Not having DiFrederico changed their offensive approach and took them a little out of their game,” Gilbride said. “We were hoping we could get off to a strong start to get them even more out of their rhythm.”

Ciomei, a guard from Stonington, was one of two freshmen in the starting lineup and one of six MMA players getting significant college minutes for the first time. He finished with seven points, two rebounds, two assists and a steal.

“We’re playing a lot of guys who are still basically in their formative years, college basketball-wise, so it’s definitely a work in progress for us,” Murphy said.

The Mariners had no double-digit scorers. Senior forward Neil Stewart of Rangeley led the way with seven points and seven rebounds.

Bowdoin’s other double-figure scorers were Kyle Jackson (14), Andrew Hippert (12) and Jordan Fliegel (11). Jackson also had six rebounds and three steals. Paul Sellew came off the bench and contributed nine points and five rebounds in 15 minutes.

POLAR BEARS 78, MARINERS 42

Bowdoin (5-2) Maine Maritime (-1-4

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Sargeantn 5 6 6 7 16 Ciomei 3 9 7

Hauser 1 5 0 0 2 Stewart 3 12 7

Hippert 3 6 5 6 12 Wharff 2 5 5

Jackson 6 11 0 2 14 Haskell 1 3 4

Fliegel 5 9 1 1 11 Paddock 2 3 4

DeFeo 0 2 0 0 0 Deabay 0 1 0

Reid-Strgs 3 6 2 2 8 Staples 1 4 2

Hebert 0 1 0 0 0 MulCahy 0 0 0

Lane 0 0 0 0 0 Manner 0 2 6 10 6

Schulkin 0 0 0 0 0 McFarlin 0 2

Sellew 3 6 1 3 9 Sternbrgh 2 5

Phillips 3 5 0 0 6 Oldham 0 2 0

Totals 29 57 15 21 78 Totals 14 48 10 18 42

Bowdoin 35 78

Maine Maritime 14 42

3-pt. goals – Bowdoin (5-12): Hauser 0-2, Hippert 1-1, Jackson 2-4, DeFeo 0-2, Hebert 0-1, Sellew 2-2; MMA (4-18): Ciomei 1-3, Stewart 1-3, Wharff 1-4, Haskell 0-1, Deabay 0-1, Staples 0-3, McFarlin 0-1, Sternbergh 1-2