BANGOR, Maine — There is a tiny margin for error this season with the University of Maine men’s basketball team.
On Saturday afternoon, it took barely 3 ½ minutes for a potential upset to be converted into a rout.
Freshman guard Wheeler Baker energized Albany with four second-half 3-pointers to help propel University at Albany to a 77-59 America East men’s basketball victory over the Black Bears at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Albany (14-7, 9-0 AE) broke the grips of UMaine’s man-to-man defense with its perimeter prowess, hitting seven of 11 shots from the 3-point arc in the second half.
Baker wound up 5-for-9 from long distance and Evan Singletary went 4-for-7 as they spearheaded the Great Danes with a game-high 21 points each.
“I think they just got hot,” said UMaine freshman guard Aaron Calixte, who accepted responsibility for some of his team’s defensive ineffectiveness.
“I wasn’t getting over the screens well enough to make them put it on the floor. They just started hitting a lot of shots after that,” explained Calixte, who led the Black Bears (2-20, 1-8 AE) with 15 points and seven assists.
Coach Bob Walsh’s ballclub was undermanned as UMaine was without starting guard Kevin Little and starting forward Garet Beal of Beals Island. Little was attending to a family situation in New York, while Beal is dealing with a fractured rib and missed his third straight game.
UAlbany, the two-time defending league champion, demonstrated its resolve. The Great Danes were still coming to grips with the news that junior guard Peter Hooley’s mother Susan died on Friday after battling colon cancer.
“It does put things in perspective,” said UAlbany senior forward Sam Rowley, who provided a polished post presence while going 7-for-10 from the floor on his way to 17 points. He also had five assists and two steals.
“How can we possibly complain about anything, given what they’re (the Hooley family) going through,” he continued.
“We’re a little insulated from it here, so what we’re going through is nothing compared to what they are and we just feel for them and hope that they can get through (it).”
UAlbany has won nine in a row, including the last five without Rowley, who returned to Australia to be with his mother.
The Great Danes shot 55 percent for the game, including 68 percent (19-for-28) in the second half. The Bears simply could not stem the tide.
“Our guys showed a lot of fight today, which I liked,” Walsh said.
“We’ve got to do it for 40 minutes but, ultimately, numbers like 68 percent from the field, 64 percent from 3 for your opponent in the second half is just unsustainable. That’s not even close enough to being good enough to have a chance to win.”
Zarko Valjarevic tallied 11 points for UMaine, while Till Gloger (eight rebounds) and Shaun Lawton (five assists) each posted 10 points. Troy Reid-Knight finished with eight points and four assists.
The Great Danes needed less than four minutes to take control in the second half. No sooner had Calixte buried a 3-pointer to tie the game at 44-all when UAlbany got hot.
Singletary started the run with a low-post basket, and Baker buried a 3-pointer, eliciting a UMaine timeout at the 10:20 mark. It only delayed the inevitable.
UMaine committed turnovers on each of its next three possessions. They led to a steal and layup by Sanders and back-to-back 3-pointers by Baker. After another timeout, a turnover resulted in a 3-pointer by Sanders as UAlbany extended the lead to 60-44 with 7:43 to play.
The run was 16-0 in 3 minutes, 33 seconds.
Baker’s performance came as he continues to learn to play defense at the Division I level.
“Wheeler’s had a major adjustment to defending and then to executing scouting reports,” said UAlbany coach Will Brown.
“ I think the sooner that he embraces it, you’ll see more games like this from him,” he added.
The burst came shortly after the Great Danes switched out of man-to-man into a 1-2-2 zone, which seemed to cause problems for UMaine.
“I think by going zone, we got them back on their heels,” Brown said.
“We got some turnovers out of it, got some long rebounds; we were able to get out in transition,” he added. “We seemed to be able to get into a little bit of a flow offensively.”
Despite its turnover issues, which led to 19 UAlbany points, UMaine shot 49 percent (23-for-47) for the game and held a 26-25 rebounding edge.
“I think overall offensively we played well enough to win any game,” Walsh said. “It’s just impossible to sustain when our defense surrenders that many points.”
UMaine was providing UAlbany with a serious challenge early in the second half. Calixte knocked down a 17-foot jumper and Valjarevic fed Reid-Knight for a 3-pointer in transition that put the Bears up 36-32 with 16:03 to play.
However, the Great Danes scored 45 points over the final 15:50, making 18 of 22 shots, a sizzling 82 percent.
“In the second half they averaged 1.77 points per possession against our set defense and that number’s astronomical,” Walsh said.