ORONO – University of Maine men’s basketball head coach Ted Woodward knew the New Hampshire Wildcats were loaded with shooters who can kill you from long distance.

Saturday afternoon, he found out they were all more than capable of doing it together in the same game.

The Black Bears actually outshot UNH 50 to 48.9 percent from the field, but couldn’t match the Wildcats’ production from the 3-point arc as UNH pulled away in the second half and held the Bears off for an 81-75 victory at Alfond Arena.

“Every single one of them can shoot and drive, and we knew it would be a difficult individual matchup for us,” Woodward said. “They have a number of different weapons on the perimeter and they all showed up today.”

The Wildcats hit 13 of 27 shots (48.1 percent) from 3-point range and became one of the few teams to outrebound the Bears this season (33-31 overall) to earn their second America East conference win.

“When we make 3’s, we’re a dangerous team and we’ve been playing that way all year, although sometimes we get a little too comfortable with the 3 and settle for it,” said coach Bill Herrion, whose Wildcats are now 5-12 overall and 2-3 in the league.

They didn’t have to settle Saturday as they canned their first five 3-pointers to take a 15-9 lead.

Maine (5-12, 1-3) tried alternating from man-to-man to zone defense and used a little halfcourt and full-court press to cool off the ‘Cats shooting, but nothing worked well.

“I think with their switching defense, every time a man switched, there would be some confusion and it would leave someone open, so if we made the extra pass, someone was open,” said UNH junior guard Tyrece Gibbs, who was often one of those open players.

Gibbs hit 5-of-8 3-pointers en route to 19 points. He also had five assists and five rebounds. He also matched up with Bears guard Mark Socoby.

Maine’s sophomore from Houlton led the Bears with 25 points – 17 in the second half.

“Every team in this league has a premier guy on the perimeter that you have to pay attention to and shut down and that’s what Tyrece has done for us,” Herrion said. “He made Socoby make some tough shots today, but really, we had a great overall team effort.”

Junior guard Eric Gilchrese led UNH with 20 points and three steals. He also had four assists. Freshman guard Alvin Abreu had 15 points and seven rebounds while Mike Christensen added 10 points and six boards.

Sean McNally, a freshman forward from Gardiner, gave Maine 11 points and seven rebounds off the bench. Junior guard Kaimondre Owes had 12 points and senior forward Brian Andre added 11 to go with eight rebounds and three assists.

The Black Bears tightened things up after UNH took a 62-47 lead with 8:58 to play. Socoby hit back-to-back 3-pointers and two foul shots to fuel a 12-2 Maine run and make it 64-59 Wildcats with 6:32 to play.

The Wildcats scored four straight on two foul shots and a Dane DiLiegro bucket to get some breathing room (72-61 with 3:30 left), and Maine missed multiple chances to maintain the pressure by missing three straight free throws.

“I think that was a momentum-gainer right there,” Owes said. “If we could have hit those free throws. It was a tough day, but you have to give them credit. They were on fire.”

Maine would shrink the deficit as low as six points over the waning minutes, but UNH finished the game by hitting 13 of its final 16 free throws while Maine went 7-for-10 from the line in the final 5 1/2 minutes.

WILDCATS 81, BLACK BEARS 75

New Hampshire (5-12) Maine (5-12)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Gibbs 6 10 2 2 19 Socoby 7 17 25

Chrstnsen 3 9 2 4 10 Bofia 3 10 7

DiLiegro 2 2 3 6 7 Cook 0 0 0

Conley 3 6 0 0 8 Bernal 2 3 4

Abreu 5 13 2 2 15 Owes 5 9 12

Valladares 1 1 0 0 2 Hight 0 2 0

Gilchrese 3 6 13 19 20 McNally 4 5 11

Tobey 0 0 0 0 0 Andre 4 6 10 11

Peay 2 2 1 5

Totals 23 47 22 33 81 Totals 27 54 14 23 75

New Hampshire 39 81

Maine 34 75

3-pt. goals – UNH (13-27): Gibbs 5-8, Abreu 3-6, Conley 2-4, Christensen 2-7, Gilchrese 1-2; Maine (7-24): Socoby 5-13, McNally 1-2, Bofia 1-5, Owes 0-2, Hight 0-2

Attendance: 1,700 (tickets issued)