Errick Greene entered his senior season at the University of Maine as a proven player whose career scoring high was 23 points.

Heading into Tuesday night’s contest at Norfolk (Va.) State, Greene had bumped that career-high up to an impressive 30 points.

By the time the Bears had fallen 84-81 – in overtime – to the Spartans, Greene had vaulted onto the all-time UMaine list with one of the top offensive performances ever.

Greene, a 6-foot-3 guard from Killeen, Texas, finished the game with 45 points, five rebounds and two assists in 43 minutes of action.

“It was as good a performance as I’ve ever seen, including my times as an assistant at North Texas and Illinois, and my times as head coach at Maine and Rowan,” Black Bear coach John Giannini said.

“It was amazing,” he added.

According to Joe Roberts, UMaine’s assistant athletic director for media relations, only one Bear has scored more in a game: Jim Stephenson racked up 54 points on March 3, 1969 against Colby College.

The second-most points ever scored before Greene’s was a 44-point effort, also by Stephenson, and also in 1969.

Greene shot 4-for-9 and made 5-of-5 free throws en route to a fairly routine 13-point first half.

But after intermission, Greene got rolling: He shot 11-for-18 from the floor, including 2-for-4 from behind the 3-point line, and made 8-of-9 free throws in a 32-point second-half binge.

His final totals: 45 points on 15-for-27 shooting, 13-for-14 from the line, and 2-for-6 on 3-pointers.

“Andy [Bedard] had a 35-point game when we won at Northwestern, and I thought that was an amazing performance,” Giannini said. “Nate [Fox] had some amazing games. But none were more impressive than this.”

Giannini said his senior star has emerged as a go-to player as the banged-up Bears wait for two starters – Derrick Jackson and Clayton Brown – to recover from injuries they sustained in a car accident on Thanksgiving weekend.

Greene was also slightly injured in the crash, but has not missed any games.

“He’s really a big-time player right now,” Giannini said. “In a bizarre way, we may be experiencing some good luck. Errick has improved immensely, and our role players have improved immensely [since Brown and Jackson were injured].”

UMaine sets online auction

The University of Maine has scheduled an online auction to benefit the school’s student-athletes.

Some of the items that will be up for bid include a pinball machine, a kayak, 12 sky box seats for a Maine-UNH hockey game, and autographed memorabilia from past and current Black Bears.

Those interested can check out the auction at the following Web address: GoBlackBearsAuction.com

The auction will feature 10-15 items in its debut, which will be available for a limited time. Those items will be replaced after a brief period with other items.

Proceeds from the auction will benefit UMaine athletics and Black Bear student-athletes.

Contact Eric Soncrant at 581-1091 to donate an item.