ORONO – Even as the offense sputtered in the first half, the University of Maine men’s basketball team played according to their coach’s credo Saturday afternoon.

Like “crazed, gnawing rats.”

And when the Black Bears finally got their offense caught up in the rat race, they destroyed New Hampshire.

Maine’s rat pack forced 30 turnovers, tied a school record with 21 steals, and pounded the struggling Wildcats 91-56 in front of 2,879 fans at Alfond Arena.

Maine improves to 11-4 (6-1 in America East play), while New Hampshire (2-12, 0-6) dropped its 12th straight game.

“I thought we were out of synch the whole [first] half, really, outside of transition,” UMaine coach John Giannini said. “I thought we did not play with much structure, we didn’t run a whole lot, and we were trying to do some things on our own a little bit.

“And that hasn’t been a good formula for us.”

But after the Bears lurched their way to a 33-30 halftime lead, that formula changed drastically. The catalyst was point guard Andy Bedard.

Bedard emerged from the locker room with a scowl and played like … well … an angry rat.

The heady junior had a hand in the first 10 points of the second half, scoring three times, feeding Marcus Wills for a bucket, and hitting Nate Fox down low once. Fox drew a foul and drained both free throws.

Bedard finished with 19 points, seven assists and only one turnover.

“I just thought we played a little flat in the first half and we needed a little spark,” Bedard said. “I figured if I came out and got guys a lot of good looks and moved the ball around and actually got us into a little offense – and showed a little enthusiasm – that it would catch on.”

It did.

The Bears traded hoops with the ‘Cats for three trips downcourt and trailed 40-39 with 17:25 to play.

Then the rats got rabid.

Maine reeled off 17 straight points during a 3:45 span to take a 57-43 edge, took a brief breather, then closed the game with a 28-6 flurry over the final eight minutes.

“We didn’t do a very good job of passing the ball out of the double-team,” UNH coach Jeff Jackson said. “That’s part of being young.”

Playing a big role in the Bears’ second-half offense was a solid, swarming team defense keyed by two seniors.

Wills scored 18 points, but was more effective on the other end of the court, where he hounded UNH’s freshman point guard Will Chavis into nine turnovers.

And senior forward Allen Ledbetter tied the UMaine record for steals with eight. He also had 18 points on 8-for-10 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. Ledbetter was primarily responsible for the seven turnovers committed by 6-foot-10 UNH sophomore Ethan Cole.

“We’re just trying to go after everybody,” Wills said. “Our perimeter players are trying to attack the guards, and [we] let the big guys bang with the big guys.”

The Black Bears shot a sizzling 69 percent from the floor in the second half, and connected on 57 percent on the afternoon.

Nate Fox pitched in with 12 points for the Bears, who were playing without senior guard Fred Meeks. Meeks injured his left wrist on Thursday in practice. X-rays showed no fracture, but an MRI test is set for today.

New Hampshire got 11 points each from Carmen Maciariello and Jeff Senulis. Former Greely of Cumberland Center star Austin Ganly contributed eight points in 15 minutes of action.

Black Bears 91, Wildcats 56

New Hampshire (2-12) Maine men (11-4)

Name G AG F AF TP Name G AG F AF TP

Maciariello 3 7 4 4 11 Wills 6 12 3 4 18

Chavis 3 12 2 3 9 Bedard 9 16 1 1 19

Cole 1 6 6 8 8 Dye 2 7 0 0 4

Cavo 2 6 0 0 5 Fox 3 5 4 4 12

Marquardt 2 4 0 0 4 Ledbetter 8 10 2 4 18

Donahue 0 1 0 0 0 Thombs 0 0 0 0 0

Ganly 3 3 0 0 8 Thibodeau 4 6 0 1 9

Faye 0 1 0 0 0 Faison 1 2 0 0 2

Senulis 4 5 0 0 11 Haynes 2 3 0 0 5

Boyd 0 2 0 0 0 Croom 0 0 0 0 0

Marshall 1 2 2 2 4

Totals 18 47 12 15 56 Totals 36 63 12 16 91

New Hampshire 30 56

Maine 33 91

3-pt. goals: New Hampshire (8-17): Maciariello 1-2, Chavis 1-5, Cavo 1-3, Donahue 0-1, Ganley 2-2, Senulis 3-4; Maine (7-19): Wills 3-5, Bedard 0-3, Dye 0-1, Fox 2-4, Thibodeau 1-3, Faison 0-1, Haynes 1-2

Attendance: 2,879