Slowed by their own mistakes early in the game, the Quinnipiac University Bobcats erupted for 57 second-half points to rally past the University of Maine 85-75 in a nonconference men’s basketball game Sunday at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
The loss ended a two-game winning streak for UMaine, now 4-7. The Black Bears, bidding to win three games consecutively for the first time since February 2013, now head to Rhode Island for games Tuesday night at Providence and Thursday afternoon at Brown.
Quinnipiac of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference improves its record to 4-6.
Trailing 36-28 at intermission, Quinnipiac outscored UMaine 27-11 over the first eight minutes of the second half to build a 55-47 lead that left the Black Bears playing catch-up the rest of the way.
And while UMaine narrowed its deficit to two points later in the half, the Black Bears’ defense could not make enough stops against a Quinnipiac lineup that made 60 percent (18-of-30) of its field-goal attempts after intermission.
“Our defense really fell apart in the second half,” UMaine coach Bob Walsh told Learfield Sports announcer Ron Lisnet after the game. “Quinnipiac did a great job of attacking the rim and shot (60) percent in the second half, and when teams do that you can’t win.”
Chaise Daniels, a 6-foot-9-inch junior forward, led coach Tom Moore’s Quinnipiac club with 17 points — on 8-of-10 shooting from the field — and nine rebounds while freshman guard Mikey Dixon scored 16 points, 14 in the second half.
Abdulai Bundu, a 6-6 sophomore, added 12 points and nine rebounds for the Bobcats, who outrebounded UMaine 43-29 overall — including a 15-8 edge on the offensive glass good for a 24-5 advantage in second-chance points.
“They’re a physically tough team,” said Walsh. “I thought they were really physically tougher than us and that’s disappointing. We played a solid first half, we were in position to win, and in the second half our defense just fell apart.”
Junior guard Wes Myers came off the bench to lead UMaine offensively with a game-high 21 points on 9-of-19 shooting in 31 minutes of duty. Freshman forward Andrew Fleming of South Paris had 11 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots while senior forward Marko Pirovic scored 10 points.
Myers scored 10 first-half points as UMaine capitalized on 12 Quinnipiac turnovers to take a eight-point lead at the break.
Danny Evans added seven points while Fleming had five points and five rebounds and Pirovic also scored five points before intermission for the Black Bears, who made 16 of its 34 first-half field goal tries, or 47.1 percent.
Daniels paced Quinnipiac during the game’s opening 20 minutes with eight points and five rebounds while Bundu had seven points and seven rebounds for the Bobcats, who made just 11 of 32 shots from the field, or 34.4 percent.
Dixon and fellow freshman guard Peter Kiss, Quinnipiac reserves who began the day as two of their team’s top three scorers with a combined average of 24.6 points per game, managed just one field goal (by Dixon) in the first half.
Quinnipiac outscored UMaine 14-4 during the first 2:56 of the second half to take its first lead at 42-40 on a Bundu layup that prompted a Black Bears’ timeout with 17:04 left in the game.
The Bobcats made 6 of their first 7 shots in the period compared to 1 of 5 for UMaine.
Myers returned to the game and converted a finger roll to tie the game at 42-42, but senior guard Daniel Harris came off a screen to hit a 3-pointer that gave Quinnipiac a 45-42 advantage.
Pirovic then made his second 3-pointer of the day for a 45-45 tie before a three-point play by Smith sent Quinnipiac off on a 10-2 run that gave the Bobcats the lead for good.
UMaine got as close as 61-59 on a pair of 3-pointers by junior Ilker Er, but Quinnipiac used another 10-2 run to build its lead back to 71-61 on two free throws by Peter Kiss with 4:53 to play.
UMaine got no closer than six the rest of the way, the final time at 78-72 on two free throws by Myers with 2:22 left.
But Kiss beat the shot-clock buzzer with a jumper and Dixon followed with two free throws to restore Quinnipiac to a double-digit lead with 1:14 left.
