BANGOR, Maine — The University of Maine men’s basketball team played well for the first 16:25 of Wednesday afternoon’s non-conference game against Boston University at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
But the Black Bears had nothing to give thanks for over the final 3:35 as the Terriers rattled off 15 unanswered points to build a 41-28 lead and then held off a furious UMaine rally at the end to post a 78-69 lead in front of a small crowd.
The Terriers picked up their first win of the season after four losses while UMaine fell to 0-4.
“We settled down and got the shots we wanted,” said Boston sophomore forward Tyler Scanlon, who had eight of the 15 points during the decisive run on a pair of three-pointers and a rebound tap-in. “We let them push the tempo a little bit but we wanted to settle down and make sure we ran our offense at our pace.”
The Terriers made six of their seven shots during the run while the Black Bears turned the ball over four times and missed their only two shots.
Walter Whyte’s three-pointer off a Javante McCoy pass triggered the flurry and McCoy converted a Nick Havener pass before Scanlon finished off a Havener miss and followed that up with back-to-back threes. A Havener jumper closed out the half.
“They controlled the pace of the game [during that stretch],” UMaine sophomore forward Andrew Fleming said.
“It was a really disappointing result,” UMaine coach Bob Walsh said. “We came out and controlled the edge of the game for the first 10 to 12 minutes. We were really comfortable. We got stops on 11 of BU’s first 15 possessions and we were getting decent looks on offense, although we hadn’t really settled into a groove. But I thought that would come.
“Then we let them flip the edge of the game on us and we never really got it back. They attacked us a little more aggressively, they were cutting harder [to the basket] and they were more aggressive on defense and forced some turnovers,” Walsh said. “I wasn’t happy with the way we responded.”
Boston built the lead to 46-30 early in the second half but the Black Bears went on a 10-2 run to make it 48-40 with 13:06 left.
UMaine had four possessions to slice into the lead even further but missed three shots and turned the ball over and Cedric Hankerson hit a desperation three-pointer with one second left on the shot clock to end a scoreless drought of 4:14 for Boston.
Boston eventually built the lead to 65-49 with 3:18 left. The resilient Black Bears went on a 17-6 run to pull within 71-66 with 56 seconds left but they couldn’t get any closer.
The Black Bears turned the ball over 13 times in the second half after having just six in the first half.
Scanlon and Will Goff had 13 points apiece for Boston, and Scanlon also had five rebounds and four assists. Whyte finished with 12 points and three assists, and McCoy scored 10 points. Havener contributed eight points, 10 rebounds, three steals and two assists.
Redshirt junior guard Aaron Calixte had a game-high 22 points for the Black Bears, and he also contributed eight rebounds and three assists. Fleming had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Trae Bryant notched 11 points, four assists and three rebounds. Dennis Ashley produced nine points and three steals.
The Black Bears led by as many as seven in the first half but Goff tied his career-high by nailing all four of his three-pointers to slice into the deficit before Boston’s run at the end of the half.
Goff’s 12 points in 14 minutes paced Boston in the first 20 minutes. White and Scanlon had eight apiece as Boston shot 64 percent from the floor (16-for-25) to offset its 10 turnovers. Boston shot 72.7 percent from beyond the three-point arc (8-for-11).
Calixte had 11 points for the Black Bears and Fleming, Evans and Bryant have five apiece.
UMaine shot just 36.7 percent from the floor (11-for-30) and 33 percent from beyond the three-point arc (4-for-12).
Boston wound up shooting 47.3 percent from the floor over the 40 minutes compared to UMaine’s 38.3 percent. Boston was 47.8 percent beyond the three-point arc compared to UMaine’s 35.7 percent. Boston outrebounded UMaine 40-37 and had one more turnover (20-19).
“We had [good] spurts but we have to sustain it for the whole 40 minutes,” Calixte said.
“We’re really struggling offensively and we struggled with advantage plays,” Walsh said. “We’d get to the rim but miss a layup. We’d get the ball in transition on a three-on-two but we wouldn’t score and they would come down and hit a three-pointer at the other end.”
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