BOSTON – The Northeastern University Huskies shot an impressive 45.6 percent from the field Saturday afternoon to hand the University of Maine men their fourth straight loss, 71-61, in an ESPN Bracketbusters non-conference game.

Guard Bobby Kelly led the shooting blitz with 17 points on 6-for-9 shooting, but forward Bennet Davis was top scorer with 19 points. Both had solid all-around efforts as Kelly also dished out four assists and grabbed five rebounds. Davis had five rebounds, four blocked shots, three steals and two assists.

“We missed a few shots in the first half, but we knew it would be difficult with them being 9-2 at home this season,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward. “Davis was a premier player in our league already before they switched conferences, and we had trouble stopping him inside early, plus we went in an offensive drought.”

Senior guard Kevin Reed led the Black Bears, who have lost five of their last six, with 14 points and eight rebounds.

“This has certainly been a difficult stretch for us with the better teams in our conference and a good Northeastern non-conference game. We certainly made some strides, rebounding the ball better and better play from our inside guys. I think we did a better job attacking the basket in the second half, even without Junior [Bernal].”

Woodward said freshman guard Bernal hurt a muscle in the first half and wasn’t feeling 100 percent so he was held out of the second half. Woodward doesn’t think he’ll miss any more time.

The 10-18 Huskies couldn’t have been much hotter in the first half as they shot 45.5 percent (5-for-11) from 3-point range and 51.9 percent overall to take a 35-19 lead into halftime of a game featuring just one lead change and one tie.

Adrian Martinez contributed 11 points and four assists for the Huskies, who got overall production from almost all of their players. Manny Adako had 10 rebounds and eight points, and fellow forward Matt Janning had five assists and eight boards.

HUSKIES 71, BLACK BEARS 61

Maine (11-16) Northeastern (10-18)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Bruff 5 13 2 2 12 Davis 5 14 11 19

Sheets 3 10 0 0 9 Janning 4 11 9

Bernal 0 1 0 0 0 Adako 4 6 8

Reed 5 17 2 2 14 Martinez 4 10 11

Socoby 2 5 6 6 11 Kelly 6 9 17

Hight 0 1 0 0 0 Spates 3 7 7

Cook 1 2 0 0 2 Wshingtn 0 0 0

Ahvnniemi 3 5 0 2 6

Bofia 3 7 1 1 7

Totals 22 61 11 13 61 Totals 26 57 12 16 71

Maine 19 61

Northeastern 35 71

3-pt. goals – Maine (6-21): Sheets 3-8, Reed 2-9, Socoby 1-2, Bofia 0-2; Northeastern (7-18): Martinez 3-5, Kelly 2-5, Janning 1-3, Spates 1-5

Attendance: 1,125