ORONO – With three-fourths of his fellow starters out of action at various points of Wednesday night’s men’s basketball game at Alfond Arena, Kevin Reed took on his share of the scoring-leadership load and then some to help his undermanned University of Maine Black Bears snap a two-game losing streak.

Maine’s junior guard scored hit seven of 12 3-point attempts en route to a season personal- and team-high 31 points in the Black Bears’ 76-70 win over the University of New Hampshire Wildcats. He also made the game-preserving play for the Bears via a steal with 18.5 seconds left and Maine up by three points.

If that wasn’t already enough, the 6-foot-2 Yarmouth, Mass., native grabbed eight rebounds, made six steals and three assists as Maine posted its fifth straight win over the Wildcats.

“I think I was just in the zone, you know?” Reed said. “Every shot looked good to me and I felt a good release off the ball, I felt nice and relaxed in my rhythm when I shot it – it was just going my way tonight.”

Things haven’t been going Maine’s or Reed’s way lately as the 11-11 Black Bears, now 6-7 in America East play, dropped five of their previous seven games. It didn’t look promising Wednesday either as 10 minutes into the game, the UMaine bench looked more like a M.A.S.H. hospital ward as the Bears had starting guards Chris Markwood (hamstring), Ernest Turner (separated left shoulder), and Joe Campbell (eye injury) nursing ailments.

“Granted, we miss those guys, but as long as you have five guys who believe they can win, we have a chance to win every game,” said Reed.

Bangor’s Campbell missed a few minutes of game time after being poked in the eye while grabbing a rebound, but he also figured prominently – like everyone else who entered the game wearing a home white jersey – with 12 points, four rebounds, three assists, and two blocks.

“There’s only so much you can control and we don’t worry about things we can’t,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward. “We’re going to work with the guys we have. They all believe in each other, they never put their heads down, and [we] concern ourselves with what we do have.”

Maine used an 8-2 run keyed by 3-pointers from Reed and freshman forward Ammar Harknell – who enjoyed a breakout game with 12 points, two assists, and one rebound in 22 minutes (all firsts in his collegiate career) – to take a 70-64 lead with 3:19 to play, but back-to-back hoops from the blocks by UNH star center Ben Sturgill (20 points, nine rebounds, two blocks) tied it with 1:10 to go.

Campbell put Maine back up by hitting both ends of a 1-and-1 with a minute left, then Olli Ahvenniemi blocked Sturgill from the block on the other end, Reed rebounded, and sophomore Chris Bruff was fouled before hitting one of two to make it 73-70 Maine with 35 seconds left.

Reed then poked the ball away, fought for the loose ball, tipped it away with a diving sprawl, and Maine took possession. With 13.6 seconds left, freshman walk-on guard Jason Hight of Westbrook was trapped in the left corner by two UNH defenders but somehow zipped a baseline pass to David Dubois on the right block. Dubois banked the ball off the glass for two points and a foul. He hit the foul shot to provide the final margin of victory.

Reed’s heroics overshadowed a 16-point effort off the bench by UNH freshman Chris Vetrano, who canned four 3-pointers in the second half.

Maine built the lead back up to five (62-57) with 6:29 to play after Reed fueled a 12-4 run with two of his six 3-pointers in the second half. But UNH knotted it again a little more than a minute later with a 3-pointer and two foul shots by Blagov Janev (12 points).

The Bears’ patchwork lineup kept things close in the first half, however, as Harknell, a freshman forward from Stockholm, Sweden, contributed five points, a rebound, and an assist in seven minutes of action. Previously, Harknell had six minutes of game time, total. Dubois also picked up some of the slack with six rebounds.

“Once I got into the rhythm of the game, I was OK. I took one shot and it felt smooth,” Harknell said. “Kevin got on fire and that left me open, so I took some shots in the second half.”

The Wildcats – now 7-15 overall and 3-10 in AE – outrebounded Maine 33-28 and outshot the Bears 48.1 percent to 47.2 for the game, but Maine had 16 turnovers to UNH’s 20 and made 10 steals to UNH’s four.

BLACK BEARS 76, WILDCATS 70

New Hampshire (7-15) Maine (11-11)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Walls 4 6 0 0 8 Flavin 1 6 4

Christensen 2 7 2 3 6 Dubois 3 4 7

Sturgill 9 14 2 5 20 Campbell 3 12

Karalis 0 1 5 6 5 Hight 2 7 4

Anderson 1 1 1 2 3 Reed 10 18 31

Friel 0 0 0 0 0 Bruff 2 4 6

Vetrano 6 13 0 0 16 Ahvenniemi 0 0

Janev 3 7 5 6 12 Harknell 4 12

Odom 0 3 0 0 0

Totals 25 52 15 22 70 Totals 25 53 16 21 76

New Hampshire 27 70

Maine 25 76

3-pt. goals – New Hampshire (5-17): Vetrano 4-8, Janev 1-4, Christensen 0-3, Karalis 0-1, Odom 0-1; Maine (10-19): Reed 7-12, Harknell 3-5, Hight 0-2

Attendance: 1,466