BOSTON — Two steps forward, one step back: That’s been the story of Maine men’s basketball under head coach Bob Walsh, now in the third year of a basement-level program rebuild.
Walsh saw his squad start the year with a sizeable step at Virginia Tech, competing for 40 minutes against the ACC heavyweight before falling 80-67. The Black Bears took another stride a game later by pounding Longwood 80-57 on the road.
But on Saturday afternoon in Boston, the Black Bears took a step back, falling 102-78 to host Boston University in their first game of the Steve Wright Classic in a game that wasn’t as close as its lopsided score.
“Today was a step back,” said Walsh of the Black Bears, who led 27-26 with 3:47 left in the first half, before being outscored 17-3 going into the break and never recovered.
“We’ve got to do a better job when things get hard,” said Walsh.
The Black Bears won the rebounding battle against the far more experienced Terriers, but were outshot from the floor (54.5 percent to 40.8 percent), behind the 3-point arc (44.4 to 27.6) and at the line (BU made 22 free throws to Maine’s 12).
But to Walsh, whose team led by as many as six points with 12:06 left in the first (18-12) and again with 10:37 left (21-15), the game was decided when BU turned up the defensive intensity with a full-court press late in the first half and UMaine couldn’t respond.
“We had the lead, and I thought we were scrappy and we were tough and we were doing what we needed to do, but when they went on a little bit of a run, we didn’t respond very well,” said Walsh. “We had 11 turnovers in the first half. We had 11 turnovers in the entire game against Virginia Tech and only seven against Longwood.”
UMaine’s struggles with the Terriers’ ferocious press were compounded by the absence of starting point guard Aaron Calixte, who suffered a fracture in his foot in practice on Thursday. But to Walsh, point-guard play was less of an issue than the team’s ability to handle adversity.
“It definitely hurts,” said Walsh of losing Calixte. “Even though we weren’t necessarily playing well for the first 15 minutes, we were really scrappy and tough and together. We’ve got to do a better job of sustaining that mentality when things get tough.”
According to Walsh, Calixte will be out for at least the better part of a month, and quite possibly longer.
“He’s going to be out probably 3-4 weeks. If his foot heals enough that he can play the rest of the year without having surgery, he’ll probably come back in mid-December. But if he needs surgery he’s going to probably be out the rest of the year.”
Regardless of the final score, Walsh saw several positives, chief among them the play of freshman Andrew Fleming, who led the Black Bears with career highs of 17 points and nine rebounds while shooting 7 of 12 from the field.
“He’s really physically tough, naturally strong, he’s a great athlete. He can really produce at this level because of how tough and physical and athletic he is,” said Walsh, who expects much more out of the 6-foot-7, 222-pound Maine native.
“Absolutely, no question he’s just starting to get comfortable where he’s just using his physical skills to be good enough, but he has a ton of room for growth.”
Despite the setback, Walsh still feels good about the direction his young team is heading.
“Our goal from the time I got here is to win the league, and that is going to continue to be our goal,” said Walsh. “Our short-term goal is to get better each day and win the next game.”
UMaine plays Northeastern at 2 p.m. on Sunday and closes out the tournament against LIU-Brooklyn at 3 p.m. Monday.
“Today was a step back, but we’ve got a long season and a lot of games to go,” said Walsh. “I thought the first 15 minutes we showed a scrappiness and a toughness that if we can maintain it for 40 minutes we’re going to have a chance.”