CASTINE – Monday night’s basketball doubleheader at Smith Gymnasium offered plenty of meaning, incentive, and importance for team members and fans alike.

In both the men’s and women’s games, the teams came in with just one North Atlantic Conference loss between them and the winner took sole possession of first place in the East division.

The Husson College men struggled with cold shooting, but warmed up late and just in time to rally past Maine Maritime Academy for a 75-66 overtime victory. In the women’s game, MMA’s Mariners used a strong start to the second half to grab momentum for good and cruise to a 66-52 win.

In the men’s game, the Eagles of Bangor scored the final 11 points in overtime to snap the Mariners’ five-game winning streak.

“We know they’re perimeter-oriented and we were willing to give them the inside,” said MMA coach Chris Murphy. “We wanted to take away the outside and we did a pretty darn good job of that until the last nine minutes of regulation.

“I don’t know if we were getting fatigued a little, but we didn’t challenge the shots, make good decisions and get out on ball screens.”

Husson, now 10-7 overall and 5-1 in NAC play, hit three 3-pointers in a 21/2-minute span to turn a six-point deficit into a three-point lead (53-50) with 6:17 left in regulation. The Eagles then went up 57-52 at the 4:26 mark, but back-to-back 3-pointers by MMA’s Bryant Ciomei and Derek DiFrederico made it a one-point game. Husson scored four straight points to lead 61-58 with 1:34 left, but two foul shots by Neil Stewart, one by Jarod Oldham (with 11 seconds left), three missed Husson shots and a Husson turnover sent the game into overtime.

After struggling for most of the game, sophomore guard Brock Bradford of Kenduskeag came alive in overtime, scoring six of his 14 points as the Eagles kept MMA scoreless for the final 2:45 of OT.

Scott Kissinger started the game-ending run for Husson by hitting a shot from the left block off a Nick Henry pass with 2:30 to play, drawing a foul, and hitting the free throw to make it 67-66 Eagles. Bradford hit on a bank shot off a drive 19 seconds later and followed that up by hitting three of four foul shots and making two steals in the final 41 seconds.

“That’s Brock. He’s a big-time player and he’s smart,” said Kissinger. “His shots are eventually going to fall and that’s the way our team is. We live and die by the 3.”

Kissinger led the way for the Eagles with a double-double: 18 points and 13 rebounds. The junior forward also had a game-high three steals.

“We basically had one more good possession than they did,” said Husson coach Warren Caruso. “We went cold in the first half and it kind of carried over into the second half, but our bench play gave us a lift and it was a war down the stretch.”

Neil Stewart of Rangeley led the 8-8 Mariners (5-1 in NAC) with 27 points and 13 rebounds in 45 minutes. Adam Haskell of Winslow had 16 points and eight boards.

“We had an incredible effort all the way through,” said Murphy. “If they came down here thinking they were going to blow us away, they were wrong. We had a very good chance to beat them.”

In the women’s game, Tatum Welch scored back-to-back baskets to fuel a 6-0 run to start the second half and the Mariners outscored Husson 16-3 in the first 51/2minutes to seize momentum for good.

“I don’t think we did a particularly good job in the first half executing our offensive sets,” said MMA coach Craig Dagan, whose Mariners are 10-7 overall and 5-1 in the NAC. “We built a five-point halftime lead because we outworked them and got a lot of offensive rebounds and foul shots.

“The difference in the second half? I think Tatum Welch played extremely well and our perimeter game was good with Kaitlyn Leeman making some big shots and Brittany Hunt making a couple big 3s. When those two are scoring from the perimeter, it makes thing a lot easier for us.”

Leeman, a senior guard from Baileyville, led the way with 12 points (eight in the second half), Newport’s Welch finished with 11 (eight in the second half) plus nine rebounds, and Hunt scored all eight of her points in the second half.

“We were forcing them to take really bad shots, so that allowed us to get more rebounds and we wanted to keep pushing it and run them off the floor because we knew they were tired,” said Leeman.

MMA outrebounded the Eagles 17-9 on the offensive boards and 43-32 overall.

“We played a lot of inside-out ball, but the difference was we were making our shots,” said sophomore guard Kelsi Eiane of Harpswell, who had eight points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Several good all-around efforts were turned in by the Mariners. Megan Franklin of Skowhegan had seven points, eight rebounds, four assists, four steals and a block. Katie Pushard scored 10 points.

“We needed to shut down Jenny Rollins, keep Shelby Bradford off the offensive glass,” said Leeman. “Bradford had five total rebounds so our post players did a great job.”

Jenny Rollins of Corinth led the Eagles (9-7, 5-1) with 16 points. Bradford, a junior from Lee, had seven.

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MARINERS 66, EAGLES 52

Husson (9-7) Maine Maritime (10-7)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Bradford 2 6 3 4 7 Leeman 5 10 12

Barden 1 4 0 0 2 Eiane 3 7 8

Al.Bragdn 0 3 3 3 3 Franklin 2 7

Rollins 5 12 5 7 16 Hunt 3 7 8

As.Bragdn 1 3 2 3 4 Welch 4 8 11

Norswrthy 0 1 0 0 0 Hutchinsn 1 3

Lincoln 1 5 0 0 3 Pushard 2 3 10

Blindow 0 0 0 0 0 Barker 1 1 2

Archer 1 3 0 0 2 Cousins 1 8 5

Sevey 2 5 2 2 7 Tilton 0 3 0

Barnes 2 2 4 6 8 Cote 0 4 0

Richards 0 0 0 0 0

Plourde 0 0 0 0 0

Lavertu 0 0 0 2 0

Totals 15 44 19 27 52 Totals 22 55 16 31 66

Husson 26 52

Maine Maritime 31 66

3-pt. goals – Husson (3-15): Barden 0-2, Al. Bragdon 0-1, Rollins 1-4, Lincoln 1-5, Archer 0-1, Sevey 1-2; MMA (6-16): Leeman 2-5, Eiane 1-2, Franklin 1-1, Hunt 2-4, Welch 0-2, Pushard 0-1, Cousins 0-1

EAGLES 75, MARINERS 66 (OT)

Husson (10-7) Maine Maritime (8-8)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Meehan 0 2 0 0 0 DiFrdrico 3 15 0 1 8

Bradford 4 13 6 6 14 Stewart 9 13 11 27

Kissinger 7 17 1 1 18 Wharff 0 2 0

MacKenzie 4 10 2 6 10 Haskell 5 16 16

Lee 3 15 4 5 13 Paddock 2 3 0 4

Figueroa 2 4 6 6 11 Ciomei 1 2 3

Perras 0 3 0 0 0 Manner 1 3 3

Puls 0 0 0 0 0 Sternbrgh 0 1 1

Coffin 1 2 0 0 3 Oldham 2 4 4

Henry 2 3 2 2 6

Totals 23 69 21 26 75 Totals 23 59 16 23 66

Husson 29 61 75

Maine Maritime 27 61 66

3-pt. goals – Husson (8-31): Kissinger 3-9, Lee 3-9, Figueroa 1-2, Coffin 1-2, Bradford 0-5, Henry 0-1, Perras 0-3; Maine Maritime (4-19): DiFrederico 2-10, Haskell 1-5, Ciomei 1-2, Wharff 0-2

Attendance: 350 (est.)