BURLINGTON, Vt. – The University of Maine men’s basketball team headed to Vermont on Friday hoping to win its first men’s basketball game in hostile Roy Patrick Gymnasium since 1998.

The Catamounts had other plans.

Vermont tied its school record for consecutive wins with its tenth in a row and posted a 79-65 victory over the Black Bears.

Vermont received 17 points from T.J. Sorrentine, 16 points and 13 rebounds from Trevor Gaines and 15 points and nine boards from Taylor Coppenrath en route to the win.

Maine got 16 points from Clayton Brown, 14 each from Errick Greene and Derrick Jackson and 12 points, seven rebounds and five blocks from Justin Rowe.

The Black Bears hung with Vermont for much of the game before a critical two-play sequence late in the game helped leave them in an eight-point hole.

First, Sorrentine came out of a timeout and nailed a 3-pointer to make it 61-55. Then, Mike Goia made a steal and finished with a dunk to make it 63-55 with 4:12 to go.

The Black Bears never recovered.

The Catamounts entered the contest with a nine-game winning streak – their longest since the 1952 season – and as the lone undefeated team in league play.

Vermont left with their tenth straight win and improved to 12-3, 5-0 in America East play. The Black Bears dropped to 4-10, 1-2. The Cats have won 10 in a row twice before: in 1952 and in 1922-23.

The Black Bears established a school record for free throw accuracy in a game as they were a perfect 18-for-18. That effort will supplant the 13-for-13 mark UMaine established against Drexel in 1999.The Catamounts began the game by pounding the offensive glass against the Bears and parlayed that effort into an early advantage.

Seven of Vermont’s first 11 hoops came on putbacks or off the second shot of a possession, and they led by as much as seven – at 20-13 – in the early going.

The Catamounts grabbed more offensive rebounds (12) than the Bears garnered on both ends (11) in the half and held a whopping 22-11 rebounding edge at the break.

Adding to the Black Bears’ woes: 7-foot center Rowe picked up two fouls in the game’s first eight minutes and headed to the bench for the rest of the half with just two points, which he scored on the first hoop of the game.

Rowe entered the game as the nation’s third-leading shot-blocker.

But the Bears didn’t let that misfortune cost them, as they didn’t let the deficit balloon beyond seven and whittled it back to 33-32 at halftime. UMaine shot 50 percent in the first half while Vermont shot just 40 percent while garnering 10 more attempts due to their rebounding edge.

Vermont finished the game with a 35-26 rebounding advantage and committed just 14 turnovers – four in the second half – to Maine’s 21.

Brown turned the ball over eight times and Greene seven for the Bears. Bangor’s Joe Campbell didn’t score but did have three steals and two blocked shots in 27 minutes of action before fouling out.

The Black Bears played without the services of starter Rickey White, who will be out for two to five weeks while rehabilitating an injury to the medial collateral ligament in his right knee.

The Black Bears return to action on Sunday when the travel to Albany for a 1 p.m. game.

CATAMOUNTS 79, BLACK BEARS 65

Maine (4-10) Vermont (12-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Campbell 0 1 0 0 0 G. Anderson 2 5

Brown 6 11 2 2 16 Gaines 8 15 16

Rowe 5 10 2 2 12 Coppenrath 5 14 15

Greene 4 12 6 6 14 Sorrentine 4 10 6 6 17

Jackson 4 8 6 6 14 A. Anderson 1 3

Petkus 2 2 2 2 7 Phelan 0 1 0

Tibbetts 1 1 0 0 2 Goia 5 10 14

Dubois 0 0 0 0 0 Hehn 1 1 7

Njila 1 1 0 2

McLaughlin 0 1 0

Totals 22 45 18 18 65 Vermont 27 59 16 25 79

Maine 32 65

Vermont 65 79

3-pt. goals: Maine (3-6): Campbell 0-1, Brown 2-2, Jackson 0-2, Petkus 1-1; Vermont (9-16): G. Anderson 1-1, Sorrentine 3-7, A. Anderson 1-1, Goia 3-6, Hehn 1-1

Attendance: 2,811