ORONO — Even teams at full strength are having their share of struggles against the University of Maine this season.
Tuesday night, an injury-depleted University of New Hampshire team was game, but didn’t have enough weapons to counter the Black Bears’ talent and depth.
UMaine limited Tyrone Conley to only five points as part of another cohesive defensive performance that carried the Bears to a 64-50 America East men’s basketball victory at Alfond Arena.
Led by the defensive efforts of Gerald McLemore and Terrance Mitchell, coach Ted Woodward’s UMaine team (13-7, 7-1 AE) held Conley nearly 10 points below his season average to claim its sixth consecutive victory.
“Conley’s a great player, he can score in bunches, so it was definitely a big task tonight guarding him coming off screens, respecting his jump shot as well as his driving ability,” said McLemore, who scored 13 points.
Conley has been forced to pick up the offensive slack for UNH, which has lost starters Alvin Abreu and Ferg Myrick to knee injuries.
Conley and backcourt mate Chandler Rhoads combined for only 11 points.
“Our two best perimeter players are 2-for-17 (shooting), so we’re not beating anybody, never mind these guys,” said UNH coach Bill Herrion.
Senior Troy Barnies of Auburn again was the catalyst for UMaine. He posted a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds off his slippery and tenacious play close to the basket.
“He’s a hard-playing kid,” Herrion said. “As an observer and an opposing coach, you’d love to have a player like him.”
Raheem Singleton added seven points while Mitchell and Andrew Rogers added six each for the Bears, who shot 43 percent from the floor, including 44 percent (7-for-16) from 3-point range.
The Bears outscored the Wildcats 29-19 in the paint, with senior Sean McNally of Gardiner (4 points, 6 rebounds) and freshman Alasdair Fraser (4 points, 3 rebounds) providing strong defense.
It was UMaine’s perimeter attack that enabled it to establish some breathing room in the second half.
Brian Benson had scored on an offensive rebound to get UNH (8-12, 2-6 AE) within five points at 32-27 only 2 1/2 minutes into the second half.
After an illegal screen foul against Barnies, the Bears’ 10th of 14 turnovers in the game, UMaine found its offensive rhythm.
“I thought we had too many turnovers,” Woodward said. “I give their defense credit for that, but I also thought that we could have made some cleaner plays. I didn’t think we were in a great flow offensively.”
That quickly changed as Mitchell sparked a momentum-building scoring surge with a 3-pointer off a kickout pass from Barnies. Andrew Rogers followed with a 3-pointer off an inbounds play, then Barnies sank two free throws to give UMaine a 40-27 lead with 15:27 left.
Scott Morris answered with a 3-pointer for the Wildcats, but Mitchell and McLemore buried 3-pointers 21 seconds apart as the Bears capped the 14-2 run and made it a 46-30 game with 14:38 remaining.
“We wanted to come out in the second half and definitely pick up our energy, our tempo and have more confidence in our offensive ability,” McLemore said. ” That’s basically what was a credit to our run.”
UNH never got closer than eight points after that.
Chris Matagrano led the Wildcats with eight points. Benson added six points and six rebounds.
“We accomplished the first two things that we really focus on every day which is we did a great job holding them down defensively and I thought we did a great job on the glass,” said Woodward, whose Bears grabbed a 45-31 rebounding advantage.
UMaine led 29-24 at the break, but likely went into the locker room feeling as though the advantage could have been more substantial.
The Bears turned in a 10-0 scoring run to take a 27-17 lead late in the half, before the Wildcats answered with strong play down the stretch, including Dane DiLiegro’s putback with 0.8 seconds left.
Five different players scored during the Bears’ surge. Fraser got it started with a seven-foot turnaround shot from the baseline, then Raheem Singleton knocked down a 16-footer. UMaine cashed in on UNH’s first turnover on a six-foot runner by Murphy Burnatowski, before free throws by Singleton (1 of 2), McLemore (2 of 2, technical foul) and Barnies (1 of 2) made it 27-17 with 4:20 left in the half.
The hosts did a solid job bottling up the UNH offense, which hit some perimeter shots early and cashed in on a couple of offensive rebounds. UMaine might have built a bigger lead had it not been for eight turnovers that led to seven points by the Wildcats.
The Bears took care of business on the boards, grabbing a 24-15 edge, and shot 42 percent from the field. However, they missed a handful of close-range shots that would have padded the lead.
The Wildcats shots 36 percent and settled for a lot of long-range shots, going 2-for-12 (17 percent) from 3-point distance. Barnies was the workhorse for UMaine, scoring 10 points and pulling down nine rebounds in 18 minutes of action.
Six other players accounted for the other of the Bears’ 19 points.
Matagrano went 4-for-5 from the field on long jump shots to pace UNH. With McLemore and Terrance Mitchell spearheading the effort, the Bears held Wildcats top scorer Tyrone Conley to three points on 1-for-6 shooting.