ORONO – Twice a year, the nation’s Division I basketball teams take the floor in exhibition contests that are intended as tuneups for the season to come.

If a team’s lucky, it ends up playing an opponent that can keep the game close.

And if it’s really lucky, the home team learns something.

John Giannini’s University of Maine men’s hoop team succeeded on both counts on Thursday, as they held off a scrappy Carleton University squad 64-56 at Alfond Arena in its exhibition debut, and learned … plenty.

The reason: The Black Bears had to play without two of their top six players after 7-foot starting center Justin Rowe and sixth man Ricky Green were suspended for an unspecified violation of team rules.

Rowe will return to the floor on Sunday in an exhibition contest against GT Express. Green will sit out that game as well.

Giannini said the absence of two top players may have actually helped the Black Bears.

“That makes it even better, because I know what those players can do,” Giannini said. “And I know how they work with different combinations. So to me, this was an even better experience to play short-manned, because it forced us to use different combinations, to use our freshmen a little bit more, and to force our older players to really extend themselves like they may have to in some games this year.”

Errick Greene led a balanced UMaine attack with 14 points. He also grabbed 10 rebounds despite playing significant minutes at point guard. Freshman guard Freddy Petkus, who was playing for only the fourth time since practice began after spraining an ankle on the second day of workouts, added 13. Derrick Jackson netted 12, Clayton Brown had 10 and Todd Tibbetts scored eight and grabbed eight rebounds in 30 minutes of action.

Robert Smart, Paul Larmand and Jaseth Maseruka scored 11 each for the Ravens of Ottawa, Ontario. Josh Poirier added 10.

The Black Bears found themselves up against a well-disciplined Carleton squad that returned its top eight players from a team that was a Canadian power last year.

The Black Bears trailed for much of the first half and fell behind 27-21 with 5:38 to play in the period before they closed the half with a 13-2 run that gave them a 34-29 lead at the break.

And in the second half, after the Ravens tied the game at 50-50 with 5:06 to play, the Bears did the kind of things Giannini hopes will continue all year: They made big stops. They made free throws. They put the game away.

Tibbetts, who will likely be the second man off the bench for the Bears, started on Thursday. He said the exhibition tests will help his team.

“The team we faced tonight and the GT Express team do have conflicting styles. This team really executed well and the GT Express team that we’re going to face is more run-and-gun, transition-type team,” Tibbetts said. “So it’s good that we get to see the styles that we’re going to see throughout the season.”

Greene said the fact that Carleton chose to press for much of the game forced him to adapt on the fly.

“From my standpoint, I feel that this is the best learning experience for me. If we had [Rowe], more teams are going to play light press,” Greene said.

Instead, the Ravens disrupted Maine’s offense by making the Bears take plenty of time to get the ball downcourt.

Overall, Giannini said, he was pleased with the outcome. And the lessons his team learned.

“That is a very, sound, well-coached and very experienced team that played today,” Giannini said, pointing out that a particularly pesky Carleton press made him install a special press-breaker for the first time … midway through the second half.

“If you figure in normal improvement against a very experienced team with two other good players on the floor, I feel pretty good,” Giannini said. “If people were expecting us to out there with only five players ready to play, and only three with any experience, going up against a veteran team and expected us to win by 40 points, that would be unrealistic.”

BLACK BEARS 64, RAVENS 56

Carleton Maine

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Charles 3 8 0 0 8 Tibbetts 3 8

Smart 4 14 0 0 11 Greene 5 9 14

Poirier 4 7 2 3 10 Jackson 3 12 12

Larmand 5 15 0 0 11 Brown 3 11 10

Maseruka 3 7 4 5 11 White 3 4 7

Ross 1 4 0 0 2 Petkus 4 9 4 13

Cattran 1 3 1 1 3 Dubois 0 0 0

McMahon 0 1 0 0 0 Croom 0 0 0

McKechnie 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 21 59 7 9 56 21 51 19 30 64

Carleton 29 56

Maine 34 64

3-pt. goals: Carleton (7-26): Charles 2-5, Smart 3-7, Larmand 1-8, Maseruka 1-3, Ross 0-2, McMahon 0-1; Maine (3-17): Tibbetts 2-5, Jackson 0-5, Brown 0-1, Petkus 1-6

Attendance: 1,128