PHILADELPHIA – Stephen Starks nailed seven 3-pointers and scored 32 points to lead the Drexel Dragons to an 88-83 win over the University of Maine in an America East men’s basketball showdown Friday night.

The Dragons took control of the game with an 11-2 run midway through the second half and Starks answered four late 3-pointers by UMaine’s Colin Haynes with three long-range jumpers of his own in the last three minutes. Those shots enabled Drexel to hold the Bears at bay.

“Our perimeter defense flat out lost the game,” UMaine coach John Giannini said in postgame remarks on WZON. “We’ve got all these guys who I build up as being great defenders, but that defense lost the game for us, pure and simple.”

Haynes gave the Black Bears their final lead of the game when he nailed a 3-pointer from the right corner to make it 78-76 with 1:22 to play.

But after a Drexel timeout, the Dragons got the ball to Starks on a set play and he hit another 3-pointer to give his team the lead for good.

“We had our best defenders on him. We knew exactly what they were going to do,” Giannini said later. “Obviously the job didn’t get done. I have no answer.”

Starks was joined in double-figures by senior forward Mike Kouser, who scored 18 and had 10 rebounds. Ashley Howard had 14.

Huggy Dye tossed in 20 for UMaine while Haynes finished with 17. Errick Greene added 15, Carvell Ammons notched 13 and Julian Dunkley had nine, all in the second half.

Maine dropped to 12-5, 6-3 in America East play. Drexel improved to 9-7, 6-2.

Giannini was frustrated with a loss that negated the late heroics of Haynes.

“Colin made big shots and did great things to give us the lead,” Giannini said. “I was so confident when we had the lead that I’m still surprised that we lost the game.”

The Dragons earned the win despite playing without the services of their second-leading scorer, senior forward Joe Linderman.

Linderman, who has been nursing a bad back for much of the season, had been playing well recently after receiving treatment from a chiropractor. But despite a healthier back, the 6-foot-8 Linderman missed Friday’s game: he was at home in Reading, Pa., battling bronchitis.

His replacement, 6-8 Robert Battle, took a blow to the head in the opening minutes of the game and played only two more minutes the rest of the way.

“With him not in there we were able to do what we do every day of the year, so there was zero adjustment whatsoever,” Giannini said. “We were prepared for different things, but we ended up being able to play what we normally do.”

Linderman had been averaging 16.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per contest.

Linderman missed all of last season with a back injury, was granted a fifth year of eligibility by the NCAA during the off-season.

In the first half, UMaine held a slim 8-7 lead before reeling off eight straight points in the wake of Battle’s injury.

Greene and Ammons scored two hoops apiece during the run.

Though the Bears extended that lead, they couldn’t get rid of the Dragons, and despite the absence of Linderman and Battle, Drexel managed to outrebound Maine 18-13 in the first half.

After Dye drained a 3-pointer to make it 33-22 late in the half, Drexel buckled down. The Dragons held UMaine without a bucket for more than two minutes during the run and pulled within 40-39 on a Stephen Starks 3-pointer in the half’s final minutes.

Maine countered with a hoop of its own to take a 42-39 lead into the break.

Starks and Dye scored 13 points apiece before intermission. Greene added 11 more. UMaine’s second-leading scorer, Dunkley, did not score or pull down a rebound in six minutes of first-half action.

The loss continued a trend for the Black Bears, who had won just one of 10 games on its Drexel-Hofstra road trip over the past five years.

Dragons 88, Black Bears 83

Maine (12-5) Drexel (9-7)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

Ammons 5 11 3 4 13 Sanders 4 7 0 8

Dunkley 3 7 3 3 9 Kouser 5 14 7 10 18

Greene 6 7 3 3 15 Battle 0 0 0 0

Jackson 0 7 0 0 0 Howard 5 8 1 14

Dye 6 11 4 5 20 Starks 11 24 3 32

Haynes 5 9 2 2 17 Deveney 2 3 4 9

Cavalieri 1 7 0 0 2 Storm 1 1 3

White 1 1 2 2 4 Moore 1 5 2 4

Brown 1 2 0 0 3 Schmieder 0 0 0

Totals 28 62 17 19 83 Totals 29 62 17 26 88

Maine 42 83

Drexel 39 88

3-pt. goals: Maine (10-34): Ammons 0-1, Dunkley 0-4, Jackson 0-6, Dye 4-7, Haynes 5-9, Cavalieri 0-5, Brown 1-2; Drexel (13-23): Kouser 1-6, Howard 3-4, Starks 7-10, Deveney 1-2, Storm 1-1

Attendance: 1,534