ORONO – After playing arguably their finest overall game of the season on the road, the University of Maine men’s basketball team was looking forward to its first home game since Dec. 15.

The University of Vermont Catamounts proved to be rude guests, however, as they handed the Black Bears a 75-58 defeat at Alfond Arena Wednesday night.

“I’m very disappointed with our turnovers tonight. I thought we had some that were just plain sloppy,” Maine coach Ted Woodward said. “We got a little bit careless here and there. Their defensive pressure got us in that mindset and we didn’t handle it very well.”

The Bears committed 23 turnovers total – four more than their per-game average – and the Catamounts took advantage, especially in the second half.

“For whatever reason, they had been turning the ball over, so we decided we wanted to guard in-bounding and just run them,” said Vermont coach Mike Lonergan, whose Catamounts won their first conference game on the road this season. “We just felt we couldn’t get in a half-court game with them so we tried to generate stuff.”

What they generated was 16 points off the fast break and 18 off UM turnovers.

“Just running the floor really helped us. On the defensive end, we just went out, one on one and tried to lock down on them,” said sophomore forward Marqus Blakely, who led Vermont with a game-high 29 points plus nine rebounds, five steals, and three blocks. “It was all defense basically. That’s where we got most of our offense from too.”

Vermont’s defense also made things tougher for 6-foot-9 Maine center Brian Andre after he scored 12 points in the first half. Andre wound up with 23 points and 10 rebounds.

“That’s going to happen any time I have a big first half,” Andre said. “You just can’t come out here and let them score almost 80 points on your home court coming off a big win. We don’t forget about our mistakes, but we’ve got to put this one behind us.”

Maine dropped to 5-11 overall and 1-2 in America East conference play. Vermont is now 8-9 and 3-2, respectively.

After 25 minutes of action in which neither team led by more than seven points, Vermont began to make a move near the midpoint of the second half, courtesy of a 9-0 run lasting 3 minutes, 41 seconds. The run gave Vermont a 46-35 lead with 11:50 left. Another 9-0 Vermont run pushed the lead to 55-39 with 9:12 left and Maine would get no closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

With both starting senior guard Kyle Cieplicki and regular reserve senior forward Timothy McCrory back home in Burlington with unspecified injuries, the Catamounts needed someone to step forward and fill the gap. They got two someones in sophomore guard Nick Vier and freshman guard Joey Accaoui.

Vier started for Cieplicki and dished out a game-high seven assists while Accaoui came off the bench to score 10 points in 16 minutes.

“That was huge for us,” Lonergan said. “That’s a great win. That’s a really good win for us right now.

Guards Kaimondre Owes and Mark Socoby chipped in for Maine with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Mike Trimboli had 12 points, five boards, and five assists for Vermont.

Vermont outrebounded Maine 38-29 and outshot the Bears 50.9 to 37.8 percent from the field.

aneff@bangordailynews.net

990-8205

CATAMOUNTS 75, BLACK BEARS 58

Vermont (8-9) Maine (5-11)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Blakely 12 16 5 7 29 Barnies 0 1 0

McIntosh 3 4 0 2 7 Bofia 0 2 0

Fjeld 3 6 3 4 9 Cook 1 4 2

Vier 1 4 1 2 4 Bernal 2 3 0 4

Trimboli 4 15 3 4 12 Socoby 2 11 11

Accaoui 4 6 0 0 10 Hight 2 3 4

Powlovich 1 4 0 0 2 Owes 3 5 12

Dean 0 0 0 0 0 McNally 1 2 0 2

Shields 0 0 0 0 0 Andre 6 10 11 15 23

Robbins 0 0 0 0 0 Costigan 0 0

Kissel 1 2 0 1 2 Peay 0 1 0

Totals 29 57 12 20 75 Totals 17 45 22 30 58

Vermont 26 75

Maine 23 58

3-pt. goals – Vermont (5-13): Accaoui 2-4, McIntosh 1-2, Vier 1-3, Trimboli 1-4; Maine (2-14): Socoby 2-8, Costigan 0-2, Bofia 0-1, Hight 0-1, Owes 0-1, Peay 0-1

Attendance: 1,478