ORONO – When it comes to game descriptions, it’s a good bet the phrase “offensive showcase” won’t be used for Saturday night’s University of Maine men’s basketball game.

But since they’re not handing out style points along with victories, the end result was just as good for the Black Bears as they defeated University of Maryland Baltimore County 54-43 at Alfond Arena.

“I’m generally pleased with the win. It was a hard-fought game where both teams struggled offensively,” said UMaine men’s basketball coach John Giannini. “When you play defense the way we have been and rebound the way we have, you have to be very pleased. We just need to get better offensively to be more complete.”

The Black Bears, now 11-6 overall and 5-3 in America East play, managed to offset 22 turnovers and a 38.8 percent shooting effort from the field by limiting the Retrievers on the defensive boards with a 32-22 edge and outrebounding them overall 48-35. The Bears also did it by using man-to-man defensive pressure to hold UMBC to 29.5 percent shooting.

“I think we did a nice job in the first half of running things we wanted to run, but in the second half, our offense was shut down and a lot of that had to do with the way they defended us,” said coach Tom Sullivan, whose Retrievers are now 6-11 overall and 3-5 in the conference. “We also couldn’t figure out an answer for Flavin either, especially with the secondary defense when he was getting a lot of rebounds.”

“Flavin” was Mark Flavin, Maine’s 6-foot-10 forward who is asserting himself offensively more and more. He notched his second straight and third overall double-double this season with a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds. He also blocked a game-high five shots in his fifth start.

“I think UMBC did a good job fronting us and I really had to work hard to get down low and get position, but once I did, it worked well,” Flavin said. “I don’t think there’s anyone who can stop me inside one on one.”

The game’s key stat was second-chance points, which Maine had none of in the first half and 11 of in the second for an overall lead of 11-9.

“A big part of it was we had to take [6-7 starting forward] Eugene Young out after he got in foul trouble and we put Andrew Feeley in. He couldn’t answer the bell, but I think Flavin had a lot to do with that,” said Sullivan, who was also missing the services of 6-6 forward John Zito (out with a groin muscle strain).

Maine was also led by guard Kevin Reed, who had all 11 of his points and nine of his 11 rebounds in the second half.

“I was just trying to get into the flow of the game offensively and do what I could,” Reed said. “I started going to the basket more in the second half.”

Bangor’s Joe Campbell had four points but was the third Bear in double-digit rebounds with 10 in 27 solid minutes.

The game was back and forth with neither team leading by more than four points until Maine went on an 11-2 run midway through the second half. UMBC scored seven of the next 11 points to pare a 38-31 deficit to 42-38, but the Bears rebounded from a horrid first half foul shooting effort by canning eight of the last 10 to pull away in the final two minutes.

No UMBC player cracked double digits as Seth Davis led with nine. Kareem Washington had nine rebounds.

BLACK BEARS 54, RETRIEVERS 43

UMBC men (6-11) Maine (11-6)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Gogerty 2 9 0 0 6 Dobson 3 10 11

Pugh 2 8 2 2 6 Flavin 8 13 3 19

Davis 4 9 1 2 9 Reed 4 7 11

McJimson 2 9 1 4 5 Campbell 1 4

Young 1 3 0 0 2 Markwood 0 1

Washington 2 11 0 0 4 Hadjisotirov 0 1

Dinkins 0 0 0 0 0 Petkus 2 4 5

Housman 3 6 1 2 7 Dubois 1 2 2

Feeley 2 6 0 0 4

Totals 18 61 5 10 43 19 49 14 25 54

3-pt. goals ? University of Maryland Baltimore County (2-11): Gogerty 2-5, Pugh 0-1, Davis 0-1, Housman 0-1, Washington 0-3; Maine (2-14): Campbell 1-2, Petkus 1-3, Dobson 0-1, Hadjisotirov 0-1, Flavin 0-2, Reed 0-2, Markwood 0-3

Attendance: not reported

Halftime: UMBC 22-21