BURLINGTON, Vt. – For the second time in two meetings this season, the Vermont Catamounts used a 3-pointer in the waning seconds to drive a dagger through the heart of the Maine men.

Vermont swept the regular season series with the Bears and notched their 16th consecutive home victory with a 65-59 decision over Maine at Patrick Gymnasium Wednesday night.

Sophomore swingman Germain Nijila hit an off-balance 3-point shot from 25 feet away and with 6.5 seconds left to cement the win for the 11-7 (5-1 in America East) Catamounts and foil a spirited Maine rally in the final five minutes.

“They made two 3-point shots in the second half and they were both as difficult as you could possibly imagine, from 25 feet with people draped all over them,” said Maine coach John Giannini, whose Bears fall to 8-10 overall and 3-3 in the conference. “They deserve a lot of credit for winning this with the shots they made.”

Maine began the second half with a 35-26 deficit to cut into and finally made its move with a 5-0 run helped by two Clayton Brown steals. Vermont padded its lead to 56-49 with three minutes left, but two Justin Rowe free throws and a Kevin Reed 3-pointer after an Eric Dobson steal made it a two-point game with 2:35 left.

Dobson then tied the game 35 seconds later on a drive inside and a lay-in after Vermont missed a 1-and-1 foul shot opportunity. A Mike Goia 3-pointer and two free throws by Taylor Coppenrath with 44.7 seconds left made it 62-57 Vermont before Dobson cut the lead again with another penetration drive three seconds later. Vermont then worked the clock down before Nijila’s 3-pointer – the seventh to fall out of Vermont’s 15 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc.

“We’re gradually getting better,” Giannini said. “This loss is not a bad loss. It’s disappointing, but it’s not a bad loss.”

Giannini said one of the silver linings in the loss was Maine’s success executing an aggressive, pressing defense.

Maine was without the services of starting forward Rickey White, the team’s second-leading scorer, who was nursing an ankle sprain, and backup guard Ludmil Hadjisotirov, who has a similar injury.

“Rickey is obviously a good player for him and we missed him, but you can’t worry about people you don’t have,” said Giannini. “We lost the game in the first half. It’s as simple as that.”

Coppenrath led Vermont with 19 points and nine rebounds. Mike Goia had 14 points.

Maine was led by Dobson, who finished with 18 points. Brown and Reed each scored 10.

Bears center Justin Rowe was held to seven points, but led the team with nine boards.

“He didn’t have one of his best games, but they also did their usual defensive job on him and put a lot of bodies in the paint,” said Giannini.

Maine was outrebounded 34-31 and committed 19 turnovers to Vermont’s 16. Both teams shot an identical percentage (43.1) from the floor with 22-for-51 efforts.

CATAMOUNTS 65, BLACK BEARS 59

Maine (8-10) Vermont (11-7)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Jackson 3 9 1 2 8 Coppenrath 8 21 2 2 19

Brown 4 9 2 2 10 Anderson 3 8

Rowe 1 4 5 6 7 Sheftic 0 3 6 6

Dobson 8 14 1 4 18 Hehn 0 2 3

Reed 4 10 0 0 10 Njila 2 2 1 6

Petkus 2 4 0 0 6 Anderson 0 0

Flavin 0 1 0 0 0 Goia 5 10 14

Hill 0 0 0 0 0 Sullivan 1 1 3

Campbell 0 0 0 0 0 Jones 3 7 6

Totals 22 51 9 14 59 22 51 14 20 65

Maine 26 59

Vermont 35 65

3-pt. goals: Maine (6-19): Reed 2-6, Petkus 2-3, Jackson 1-4, Dobson 1-3, Brown 0-3; Vermont (7-15): Goia 4-8, Coppenrath 1-4, Njila 1-1, Hehn 0-1

Attendance: 2,415

UM-Machias 94, Thomas 71

At Waterville, Gary Dussard racked up 32 points, including eight 3-pointers, and nine rebounds as the Clippers cruised.

Chujor Chujor put in 16 points for UMaine-Machias and Philip Munro scored 11.

Will Nickerson sparked the Terriers with 13 points and eight rebounds. Jimmy Cardaci and Adam Rich added 12 and 11 points, respectively.

UM-Machias (6-10) 94

Whittaker 1-1-4, Munro 5-1-11, Dussard 11-2-32, Humes 1-0-3, Miller 1-0-2, Liburd, Garrett 1-0-3, Footer 2-2-6, Sims 3-0-7, Midgley 1-2-4, Clarke 1-4-6, Chujor 8-0-16

Thomas (4-7) 71

Rich 4-0-11, Beal 1-2-4, Bonang, Godley 3-2-8, Godley 3-2-8, Grappi 2-2-6, Cardaci 5-3-12, Laraia 2-0-6, Woodworth 1-0-2, Woodbury 2-0-4, Caron, Nickerson 6-1-13, Card 2-0-4, DePalmer 0-1-1

3-pt. goals: Dussard 8, Whittaker, Sims, Garrett; Rich 3, Laraia 2

Halftime: UM-Machias 49-30

Women’s basketball

UM-Machias 80, Thomas 68

At Waterville, Sara Ricker poured in 24 points to lead the Clippers to victory.

Angela Robb netted 22 points for the winners and Kelley Welles scored 15.

Malorie Leclerc led the way for the Terriers with 20 points, and Erin Lovely tallied 19. Courtney Corbett notched 10.

UM-Machias (9-6) 80

Aziz 0-2-2, Rich 0-1-1, Robb 7-4-22, Nuite 1-2-4, Richardson 0-2-2, Aputu 0-1-1, Qualey, Welles 6-3-15, Ricker 9-5-24, Guest 4-1-9

Thomas (2-11) 61

Hathaway 2-3-8, Leclerc 7-6-20, Lovely 7-2-19, Riley 2-1-6, Corbett 4-2-10, Lessard 2-0-5, Arute, Gurney, Parris

3-pt. goals: Robb 4, Ricker; Lovely 3, Hathaway, Riley, Lessard

Halftime: UM-Machias 33-30