BALTIMORE – The University of Maine men got back to basics Saturday, concentrating on ball movement and working the inside-out offensive game plan.

In what could be called a Basketball Fundamentals 101 refresher course, the Black Bears scored an “A” with a 71-63 America East conference men’s win over University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Senior forward Mark Flavin and sophomore guard Kevin Reed were Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside for the Bears. Flavin had a game-high 23 points, 15 rebounds, and three blocks while Reed hit seven of 11 3-pointers for 23 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

“It all goes together. Kevin can’t get those open 3’s unless we’re going inside and Mark will get double-teamed unless Eric [Dobson] is distributing the ball to the open men,” said Maine coach John Giannini, whose Bears are now 17-8 overall and 11-5 in AE play.

“We played a very good game offensively,” Giannini said. “In fact, teams play their best when they have good balance inside and outside and a lot of that had to do with the fact that Eric did a great job distributing the ball.”

Dobson had only eight points on 2-for-10 shooting from the field, but it was the “9” next to his name in the assists column and his game-high four steals on the stat sheet that earned him rave reviews.

Maine shot 50 percent from the field in the game.

“I think a lot of that has to do with Eric and helping us get the right shots,” Giannini said.

Maine’s win sets up a battle for third place against Northeastern University, which lost to Boston University 82-68 Sunday. Northeastern hosts Maine Thursday night.

John Zito led the UMBC Retrievers with 19 points and seen rebounds. Rob Gogerty scored 12. The Retrievers drop to 7-18 overall and 4-12 in the conference.

BLACK BEARS 71, RETRIEVERS 63

Maine (17-8) UMBC (7-18)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Flavin 11 17 1 3 23 Zito 7 12 19

Reed 8 13 0 0 23 Young 0 2 1 1

Dobson 2 10 4 6 8 Washington 4 9

Petkus 3 6 0 0 6 Gogerty 5 11 12

Markwood 2 7 1 2 5 Pugh 2 11 5

Hadjisotirov 0 1 2 2 2 Davis 4 8 9

Dubois 2 2 0 0 4 McJimson 3 6

Housman 0 0 0 0

Feeley 0 2 2 2

Totals 28 56 8 13 71 25 59 17 63

Maine 34 71

UMBC 28 63

3-pt. goals ? Maine (7-19): Reed 7-11, Dobson 0-1, Hadjisotirov 0-1, Petkus 0-3, Markwood 0-3; UMBC (4-12): Gogerty 2-4, Washington 1-2, Pugh 1-4, Zito 0-2

Attendance: