ORONO — The University of Maine men’s basketball team had a well-deserved day off Monday after making an early-morning return from their season-opening cross-country trip.
Coach Ted Woodward’s squad split on the road, beating Utah Valley in overtime Friday night, then flying back to the East Coast on Saturday before dropping an 89-59 decision to Maryland of the Atlantic Coast Conference on Sunday afternoon.
The Bears, playing without two of their top three returning scorers, showed some resolve in the season-opening win.
UMaine demonstrated it has the ability to plug some holes with a versatile roster.
“We have some depth and I think it’s great guys have an opportunity to step up and get some things done,” Woodward said. “Friday night we had a lot of good performances. It was an outstanding team win against what I expect will be a very good Utah Valley team.”
The Bears were without senior forward Sean McNally of Gardiner, who is nursing an ankle injury, and senior guard Terrance Mitchell, who is 2-3 weeks away from coming back after breaking the index finger on his left hand and having surgery.
McNally tweaked his ankle during UMaine’s Nov. 6 exhibition game against Cape Breton.
“He’s ready to go, or close to it,” Woodward said. “We just didn’t have a chance to get him through any significant practice time from a live standpoint. We expect he should be able to bounce back very soon.”
UMaine turned the ball over 17 times against the Terrapins on Sunday, but had only 12 turnovers in Friday’s overtime contest.
“It was a very good win for us,” Woodward said.
Senior Troy Barnies of Auburn has set the tone for the Bears early on, averaging a team-leading 16 points, on 58 percent shooting, and nine rebounds.
Sophomore Murphy Burnatowski (12 ppg, 4 rpg) and junior Raheem Singleton (11 ppg, 3 apg) also have played well.
Junior guard Gerald McLemore is off to a slow shooting start, having going 5-for-24 (21 percent), including 1-for-15 from 3-point range.
UMaine returns to action Friday with a 7 p.m. home game against NAIA member UMaine-Machias.
UMaine football preparing for final game
Coach Jack Cosgrove and the UMaine football team have entered their final week of the season and are preparing for Saturday’s season finale against James Madison scheduled for noon at Alfond Stadium in Orono.
Despite limping toward the end of the campaign, the Bears earned a 28-18 victory Saturday at Towson to improve to 4-6 overall, 3-4 in Colonial Athletic Association play.
While the defense came up with two interceptions that led to or resulted in touchdowns in the win, the offensive unit did just enough to get the job done.
Junior tailback Pushaun Brown was the catalyst, rushing for 101 yards on 21 carries with a touchdown to spark a unit depleted by injuries.
“We have had to lean on him tremendously the last three weeks, going all the way back to Rhode Island, and he’s really responded well,” Cosgrove said during Monday’s CAA coaches conference call.
“He’s been good with security of the football, protecting the quarterback when we throw and, most importantly, running the football in some key situations,” he added. “I don’t know where we’d be without him, because we’re really depleted at that position and he’s really answered the bell for us.”
Tailbacks Jared Turcotte of Lewiston and Roosevelt Boone and fullback Conor Keating all remain sidelined with injuries.
While his statistics weren’t spectacular, junior Chris Treister of Cape Elizabeth nonetheless directed UMaine to the victory at quarterback.
Treister got the nod earlier in the week after starter Warren Smith’s three-interception, one-fumble effort in the 39-24 setback at Massachusetts.
“We’ve been great in the red zone all year long with points, but our third-down efficiency and our ball security is not what we expect it to be,” Cosgrove said. “Somebody’s got to be held accountable for that, outside of the head coach, so that goes to the quarterback. That’s just the way the game works.”
Treister was 9-for-17 passing good for 100 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran seven times for 11 yards and one TD.
Smith wound up closing out the contest after Treister suffered a cut on his right index finger when he struck his hand on a helmet. He completed two passes, but fumbled once and threw an interception on a conversion pass.
UMaine women back to work
Coach Cindy Blodgett likely will be stressing the need to maintain intensity on the defensive end of the court as the UMaine women’s basketball team gets back to practice this week.
UMaine allowed 45 second-half points in Saturday’s season-opening 73-54 loss to Harvard at Alfond Arena.
The Crimson, who returned everybody from a team that won 20 games last season, were able to capitalize on transition opportunities and get open shots in their half-court sets.
“We talked about the same thing coming out in the second half, (that) every single defensive possession is going to be critical for us,” Blodgett said. “Our attention to detail has to be every single possession and it can’t waiver if we’re not scoring at the other end.”
The Bears played almost exclusively man-to-man against a Harvard squad that is adept at shooting 3-pointers. However, they seemed to break down more frequently as the Crimson excelled in transition and shot 57 percent from the field in the second half.
“They definitely capitalized on our (20) turnovers,” said UMaine’s Katelyn Vanderhoff. “They were able to push us and we didn’t get back in time.”
A point of emphasis this week will be playing hard and effectively throughout the game.
“I think overall we’ve just got to be more consistent in our play,” Vanderhoff said. “Our effort, we gave it sometimes but we didn’t give it all the time.”
UMaine returns to action Friday with a game at Division I Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I. It will be the first of four games in eight days for the Bears.
Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith expects UMaine to demonstrate some gains this season.
“I think they’re noticeably better than last year and then they have a nice freshman that adds to the mix,” she said.
Delaney-Smith said she continues to utilize the Maine pipeline, having added former UMaine standout Missy Traversi to her coaching staff this season.
“I love Missy. She’s just refreshing,” said Delaney-Smith, who has Bangor native Kristan Strout as her director of basketball operations.
Former Westbrook star Bri Fecteau, who attended Bentley College, also previously coached with Delaney-Smith at Harvard.
Traversi is a 1,000-point scorer who graduated from UMaine in 2005. She played a couple of seasons overseas before becoming a high school coach in Massachusetts.
“She’s going to be a great coach,” Delaney-Smith said. “She’s already a great coach and she just started.”
UMaine women name captains
Blodgett also has announced her four co-captains for the 2010-11 season.
Senior Tanna Ross of Newburgh, along with juniors Samantha Wheeler, Brittany Williams and Samantha Baranowski, will help guide the Bears as team leaders.
Wheeler’s uncle Jeff Wheeler was a captain for the UMaine men’s team during the 1984-85 season.