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ORONO – A battle between America East’s top men’s basketball team and the one at the bottom of the standings went accordingly as the University of Maryland Baltimore County emphatically avenged its only home court loss of the season.
The UMBC Retrievers, who clinched their first AE title earlier this week, did it with defense, outside shooting, and inside scoring en route to an 85-68 victory over the University of Maine at Alfond Arena Thursday night.
Ray Barbosa bombed the Bears, hitting seven of 12 3-point shots, and led the Retrievers with a game-high 31 points. He also had five assists.
“We came in here for some payback,” said the fifth-year senior guard. “We wanted to hit them in the mouth first and give them something to worry about.
“They came back, but we weren’t going to let them continue their run and we came out in the second half and did everything we had to do to win the game.”
The Retrievers, who lost to Maine at home (77-74) Jan. 12, used scoring runs of 12-0 11-4, and 12-3 in the second half to take firm control of momentum and run away from the Black Bears, now 7-21 overall and 3-12 in AE play.
“At halftime, I challenged the guys and told them they were too good to come in here and play the way they were playing,” said UMBC coach Randy Monroe. “Our execution was much better in the second half.
“I thought it was a combination of our defense, when we went man to man and got defensive rebounds to trigger our fast break, and making some key buckets with some big threes and some inside scoring.”
The loss means the Bears will enter the AE tournament as the No. 9 seed and have to play a play-in preliminary game against Stony Brook. It also means the Bears have lost all eight of their home conference games.
The Retrievers improved to 21-7 overall and 13-2 in the conference.
UMBC forward Darryl Proctor had 21 points and Cavell Johnson had a double-double off the bench with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Senior guard Jay Greene had a more unconventional double-double with 11 points and 14 assists.
Junior guard Kaimondre Owes led the Bears with 17 points despite not playing the final six minutes after getting a technical foul for a flare-up with a UMBC player under the basket.
“Yeah, I decided to sit him down,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward. “It was one of those games we couldn’t give up any easy baskets and I also thought Robby Hanzlik and Mark Socoby did a solid job at point and I figured the bigger we could be, it might give us more an advantage on them.”
Socoby, a sophomore guard from Houlton, finished with 11 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and two steals.
Senior center Brian Andre of Bingham had 15 points.
“I felt pretty comfortable and I got some pretty good looks, but we missed a couple bunnies and they were shooting really well,” said Andre, playing his third game since missing three with a broken nose.
“Andre’s a hulk inside and they have big guards, but I thought we were quicker and that was to our advantage,” said Monroe.
Virtually everything was going UMBC’s way in the first half. The Retrievers raced out to an 11-2 lead and stretched it as much as 13 points as the Bears were turning the ball over, Barbosa was bombing away from 3-point range, and UMBC was outworking the Bears on the boards.
UMBC led 32-19 with 4:23 left In the first half, but after a UMBC timeout with 3:55 left, the Bears went on a 13-0 run to finish the half. Philippe Tchekane Bofia sparked the Maine run with three straight baskets – a 10-footer from the left wing, a shot from the left block after a fake near the perimeter, and a 3-pointer from above the top of the key.
Owes led all scorers with 15 points in the first half. Barbosa had 13.
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RETRIEVERS 85, BLACK BEARS 58
UMBC (21-7) Maine (7-21)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Spadafora 2 5 1 2 5 Barnies 0 1 0
Proctor 8 13 5 7 21 McNally 1 2 2
Fry 0 0 0 0 0 Andre 6 15 3 15
Greene 5 6 0 0 11 Owes 7 13 17
Barbosa 9 15 6 7 31 Socoby 4 14 11
McKnight 0 0 0 0 0 Hanzlik 0 1 0
Johnson 6 9 2 4 14 Uhrin 1 1 2
Hodges 1 6 0 0 3 Woodbry 0 0 0
Massey 0 0 0 0 0 Costigan 3 8
Cook 2 6 2 6
Peay 0 2 0 0
Bofia 3 5 0 7
Totals 31 54 14 20 85 Totals 27 64 11 68
UMBC 32 85
Maine 32 68
3-pt. goals – Maryland-Baltimore County (9-21): Barbosa 7-12, Hodges 1-4, Greene 1-2, Spadafora 0-2, Johnson 0-1; Maine (6-17): Owes 2-3, Socoby 2-9, Costigan 1-2, Bofia 1-2, Barnies 0-1
Attendance: 1,357 (tickets issued)
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