ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine men came into Thursday night’s America East Conference opener against Vermont determined to contain player of the year candidate Marqus Blakely.
And it showed as Vermont’s star forward was double-teamed, constantly harassed and held to four points and six rebounds in the first half.
So when the second half started, Blakely simply found other guys — like Maurice Joseph — to shoulder the scoring load.
Joseph, a senior guard who transferred to Vermont from Michigan State, hit a big 3-pointer late and scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Catamounts to a 64-56 win over Maine at Alfond Arena Thursday.
“We wanted to take Blakely out of his game on the blocks, make him put it on the floor and pass the ball because he’s one of, if not the best post player in the conference,” said Maine junior forward Sean McNally.
Blakely finished with 11 points, 13 rebounds, six assists, four steals and four blocks.
“We’re fortunate we have Marquis because he was the difference in the game,” said Vermont coach Mike Lonergan. “Blakely kind of took over when we came out in the second half and probably could have had a triple-double, but some of our guys missed some layups and jump shots.”
Vermont’s Evan Fjeld chipped in with 11 points.
Terrance Mitchell led the 8-6 Black Bears off the bench with 13 points while Gerald McLemore finished with 12 points but hit only four of 13 shots from the field.
Junior Bernal had six assists to go with eight points and five rebounds.
McNally was held to nine points — all on free throws — and four rebounds.
“Right from the get-go, my very first touch, I knew they were going to be doubling me all night,” said McNally. “They had a great game plan on both me and Gerald.”
The Catamounts took control of the lead in a tight second half with 4:37 left via foul shots and a big 3-pointer at the top of the key by Joseph with 2:30 to play. The modest 6-2 scoring run provided just enough of a comfortable lead for the Catamounts, who hit 10 of 12 free throws in the final 4½ minutes to keep the Bears at bay.
The 11-5 Catamounts notched their sixth straight win over Maine.
Vermont stormed out of halftime and scored six straight on three hoops by Fjeld and took a 38-28 lead via a 10-2 run, but Maine had a run of its own — 13-3 over the next three minutes — to make it a tie game with 15:28 left. From that point, the teams were never separated by more than five points over the next nine minutes as there were four lead changes and three ties.
In the first half, Vermont dominated statistically. The Catamounts outrebounded the Bears 22-12 and outshot them from the field 45.8 to 34.5 percent. Maine offset those stats with six steals that helped create 14 turnovers and gave Maine a 7-0 edge in fast break points.
“We just had too many turnovers in the first half, but we only had six the rest of the way so that was key for us,” said Lonergan.
Vermont ended up outscoring Maine 21-13 in points off turnovers for the game.
“One of the things Vermont always does is a great job of converting turnovers,” said Maine coach Ted Woodward. “They get to the basket off turnovers and a large part of that is Marqus Blakely. He creates points for himself and finishes.”
The Catamounts also outrebounded the Bears 43-29 overall and scored 24 points in the paint to Maine’s 15.
“We were still plus in turnover margin tonight with them, but rebounding was key, especially against them because that’s something they do very well,” said Woodward.