The University of Maine men’s basketball team put five players in double figures and limited Longwood University to just 38.6 percent shooting from the floor en route to an 80-58 victory at Willett Hall in Farmville, Virginia Sunday afternoon.
UMaine is now 1-1 while it was the opener for the Lancers.
Junior guard Ilker Er from Turkey nailed four 3-pointers during a 14-2 run that spanned the end of the first half and start of the second half to give the Black Bears a 42-31 lead.
Longwood could get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Er finished with a team-high 16 points and he also grabbed three rebounds. He was 4-for-9 from beyond the 3-point arc. Junior guard Wes Myers had 15 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
Marko Pirovic, a senior forward, had 11 points and seven rebounds and junior Aaron Calixte contributed 10 points and three assists as did sophomore Ryan Bernstein. Bernstein also had two steals.
Freshman Danny Evans chipped in with eight points and six rebounds.
“Ilker is a confident scorer and he made some big shots to allow us to extend our lead and get a little breathing room,” said UMaine head coach Bob Walsh. “We played nine players and they all contributed in some way.
“We played real tough defensively for 40 minutes,” added Walsh. “Even in the first half, when we didn’t have our legs offensively, we got stops and we rebounded well. They’re a team that wants to get out and run and score on you and we held them to 58 points.”
He said his team got “comfortable offensively” in the second half.
“We made shots, we got to the rim and we showed real composure. We were able to take control of the game,” he said.
He was also pleased with the fact his team turned the ball over just seven times. They had 11 in a season-opening 80-67 loss at Virginia Tech on Friday.
“When you have 16 assists and only seven turnovers, that’s really good especially against a team that likes to steal the ball,” said Walsh who noted that committing just 18 turnovers in their first two games “is a good sign. It shows we value the basketball.”
Darrion Allen had a game-high 18 points for Longwood. He also corralled seven rebounds.
Isaiah Walton contributed 16 points, five rebounds and two steals and Khris Lane had 14 points and eight rebounds. Kendrick Thompson dished out a game-high five assists.
UMaine trailed 29-28 when Andrew Fleming fed Er for his first 3-pointer with 2:11 left in the first half to give the Black Bears a lead they would never relinquish.
Bernstein fed Evans for a layup to close out the half and expand the lead to 33-29.
Vincent Eze picked up the assist on Er’s next 3-pointer just 34 seconds into the second half and Er hit another one off an Austin Howard feed to make it 39-29.
A Chris Shields jump shot snapped Longwood’s 5:08 scoreless drought but Er answered with his fourth three, this time off an Evans pass.
UMaine dominated virtually every statistical category. The Black Bears outrebounded Longwood 46-40, had an 18-7 edge in points off turnovers; 22-12 margin on points in the paint and a 31-16 advantage in points from the bench.
Longwood turned the ball over 16 times to UMaine’s seven.
UMaine shot 41.7 percent from the floor.
The Black Bears will next play in the Steve Wright Classic at Boston University against BU on Saturday at 4 p.m.; Northeastern Sunday at 2 p.m. and Long Island-Brooklyn on Monday at 3 p.m.
In Friday night’s loss to Virginia Tech, Myers led Maine scorers with 18 points, shooting 6-for-13 from the field and also had eight rebounds in the game.
Virginia Tech’s Zach LeDay had a double-double, including a game-high 20 points and 12 rebounds. The Hokies had three other double-digit scorers: Ahmed Hill (14 points), Justin Robinson (13) and Chris Clarke (12) who was one rebound away from a double-double.
Er scored the opening points in the game with a 3-pointer, giving UMaine the lead, but Virginia Tech quickly went on a 7-0 run to take the lead and would not trail after that.
UMaine was able to tie the game on a jumper by Calixte for two of his seven points on the night, tying the game at 10-10.
Minutes later with the score 13-13, Virginia Tech opened up an 11-0 run taking a 24-13 lead and the Hokies held a 10-point margin heading into the halftime break. They shot 48.4 percent from the field in the first half compared to UMaine’s 37 percent.
Myers opened the first half with five straight points for UMaine, as Virginia Tech held a 41-34 lead with 18:32 remaining in the second half. The hosts later went on a 9-0 run and increased their lead to 51-36.
The Hokies rattled off four straight buckets in the paint before a 3-pointer by Ahmed Hill increasing their lead to 62-43 11:53 remaining.
Virginia Tech’s largest was 80-55.
The Black Bears closed out the game by going on a 12-0 run, sparked by two 3’s by Dennis Ashley, as UMaine closed the gap to 80-67.