ORONO – Saturday afternoon’s nonconference basketball game against Mount St. Mary’s University was a real head scratcher for the University of Maine men.

Mount St. Mary’s won the game 66-59, but it wasn’t really that close.

The Black Bears played solid defense for most of the game, but the visiting Mountaineers had more steals as well as points off turnovers. The Bears had a rebounding edge, but the Mountaineers scored just as many points in the paint. Maine shot almost exactly the same, percentage-wise, as the Mountaineers and even outshot them from 3-point range, but struggled offensively.

“We definitely could have beaten them,” said frustrated Maine guard Junior Bernal. “They were a more mature team. They made some good decisions and we didn’t.”

The Black Bears committed 20 turnovers to 13 by Mount St. Mary’s, which scored 16 points off turnovers.

“I don’t think we were in any type of a funk. We played good defense and outrebounded them, but it was a little sloppy offensively,” said head coach Ted Woodward, whose Bears dropped to 4-6. “Turnovers are our biggest concern. We’re going to make freshman mistakes a lot during the course of the season.”

Woodward’s young squad just couldn’t get untracked offensively against the Mountaineers’ man-to-man defensive pressure and half-court traps.

“We just wanted to keep a lot of heat on them to make the entry passes harder, take them out of their sets and not let them run things as clean as they wanted,” said MSMU coach Milan Brown. “We wanted to be aggressive.

“We knew we’d have a little trouble with them on the boards, so in turn we tried to give them trouble handling the basketball.”

They succeeded. Maine senior center and leading scorer Brian Andre of Bingham was held to four points – 10.4 below his season scoring average – on 1-for-7 shooting.

“We doubled the post, but it was really about putting pressure on them,” said Brown. “That was the only option we had.”

Speedy sophomore guard Jeremy Goode led MSMU’s balanced scoring attack with 17 points and turned in the best all-around effort of the day with six assists, six rebounds and four steals in 33 minutes.

Ironically, Goode scored just two points during a 16-5 Mountaineers’ scoring run in the first nine minutes of the second half that effectively put them in control of a previously tight game for good. The Mountaineers took a 42-30 lead with 11:56 left in the game and never led by fewer than eight until the final 20 seconds.

“We had to change things and extend our pressure to full-court, but that was definitely the difference in the game and it really helped us,” Brown said. “When they got down, they actually came out a little further to pressure us, but that actually helped us by opening the lane and letting us go with more dribble drives.”

That helped the Mountaineers score 28 points from the paint to equal Maine’s total.

Junior forward Philippe Tchekane-Bofia came off the bench and helped fill the Bears’ inside-presence void with 12 points and six rebounds.

“I always try to play as hard as I can, whether I’m coming off the bench or starting,” said Tchekane-Bofia. “We basically tried to take what they would give us and deal with it.”

Bernal led the Black Bears with 17 points, seven assists, and seven rebounds.

Chris Vann and Will Holland backed up Goode for the 5-4 Mountaineers with 16 and 11 points, respectively.

GAME FACTS

. Maine committed 20 turnovers to 13 by Mount St. Mary’s, which scored 16 points off turnovers.

. Maine senior center and leading scorer Brian Andre of Bingham was held to four points – 10.4 below his season scoring average.

. Speedy sophomore guard Jeremy Goode led Mount St. Mary’s balanced scoring attack with 17 points and had six assists, six rebounds and four steals.

MOUNTAINEERS 66, BLACK BEARS 59

Mount St. Mary’s (5-4) Maine men (4-6)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Sa.Atupem 3 10 2 2 8 Barnies 3 6 6

Mitchell 0 2 2 2 2 Cook 1 3 3

Goode 5 10 7 10 17 Andre 1 7 4

Vann 4 11 6 6 16 Bernal 5 13 7 17

Holland 4 9 2 3 11 Socoby 1 8 3

Cajou 1 2 4 4 6 Hanzlik 2 3 6

Beidler 0 1 0 0 0 Hight 1 2 2

Jackson 2 5 0 0 4 McNally 2 2 4

Loughry 1 2 0 0 2 Peay 0 1 2

Bofia 4 8 2 12

Totals 20 52 23 27 66 Totals 20 53 15 19 59

Mount St. Mary’s 24 66

Maine 23 59

3-pt. goals – Mount St. Mary’s (3-11): Vann 2-6, Holland 1-4, Goode 0-1; Maine (4-10): Bofia 2-2, Hanzlik 2-3, Socoby 0-5