ORONO, Maine — Sean McNally had a double-double, Mark Socoby dished out a game-high seven assists, and the University of Maine men had fewer turnovers and more rebounds than Harvard University.
Sounds like a win for the Black Bears, right? Well, it might have been if the visiting Crimson hadn’t shot a scalding 48 percent from 3-point range (12-for-25) and 54.3 percent from the field overall in a 76-63 victory over Maine at Alfond Arena Sunday afternoon.
Harvard used a 9-2 scoring run to turn a two-point lead (56-54) with 6:25 left in the game to a 65-56 lead with 3:57 left. The Crimson hit six of six free throws in that span.
“I got a couple cheap fouls and sent them to the line. I think they made at least six in a row so some of that was on me,” said Maine freshman guard Gerald McLemore, who led the Bears with 18 points. “We didn’t make key stops at key times and put them on the line too much.”
Four of those free throws came from junior guard Jeremy Lin, who hit five of seven overall along with another six of nine from the field en route to 18 points. The 6-foot-3 Lin had a big game with seven rebounds, six of Harvard’s season-high 18 assists, two steals and even a blocked shot.
“He is their money player, and he did step up, but they got a lot of guys off the bench who contributed. They got a lot of production from their bench,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward.
Guards Dan McGeary and Oliver McNally came off the bench to score 11 and 10 points, respectively, while also combining for seven rebounds, six assists and three steals.
“McGeary and McNally gave us a lot of heart and hustle off the bench and that was big,” said Harvard coach Tommy Amaker, a former star guard at Duke University.
Harvard outscored Maine 30-9 in bench points.
Harvard’s shooting, defense, and bench scoring combined to offset a pronounced advantage for the Bears in the paint. Maine outrebounded the Crimson 21-6 on the offensive glass and 42-27 overall, outscored them 32-24 in the paint, and had 24 second-chance points to Harvard’s eight.
“When we got the ball inside, they did a good job of denying the outside perimeter so we pretty much had to take what we got,” said Maine sophomore Troy Barnies.
The forward from Auburn had 17 points and nine rebounds.
“I just let things happen and take good shots, and we wanted to have offensive balance in this game so I wanted to finish when I had the ball inside and did for the most part,” Barnies said.
Fellow 6-7 big man Sean McNally of Gardiner had 10 points and 11 rebounds.
“We didn’t do a very good job on the offensive backboards and that’s what allowed them to stay within striking distance most of the ballgame,” said Amaker. “We came in with the idea we really needed to defend the perimeter and their 3-point shooters. We were very concerned with that, but I think we did a tremendous job of challenging their shots.”
To that end, Harvard succeeded, holding guard Mark Socoby of Houlton to nine points, six below his scoring average, and limiting Maine to just six 3-point shots, three of which were made.
Maine shot 40.6 percent from the field.
“We missed far too many layups in that game, and not just from our post guys,” said Woodward. “We didn’t play as strong as we should have with a size advantage.”