BANGOR, Maine — John Carroll’s two free throws with 0.5 seconds remaining lifted the University of Hartford to a 77-76 America East men’s basketball victory over the University of Maine at the Cross Insurance Center on Wednesday night.
The Black Bears had rallied from an eight-point deficit in the final 5 minutes, 15 seconds, and held a 76-75 lead after Isaiah White made 1 of 2 from the free-throw line with 3.1 seconds left.
Hartford then called timeout before Max Twyman made a long inbounding pass that UMaine deflected but could not control. Carroll grabbed the ball near the top of the key, drove to the basket with time winding down and was fouled on his layup attempt.
“I knew I had probably one dribble and I didn’t see any shooters around me so I figured the best option was for me to go hard to the rim,” said Carroll.
Officials went to the replay to determine that Carroll was fouled with 0.5 seconds left. After a UMaine timeout, the senior forward — who began the night shooting 77.6 percent from the line for the season — calmly made both free throws to give Hartford the final lead.
“We shoot free throws every day in practice and we always make it competitive,” said Carroll. “We try to create an environment like that, we try and make it pressure filled. That was something else, though.”
The line proved to be one of Hartford’s biggest advantages as the Hawks made 21 of their 28 free throws compared to 10 of 16 for UMaine.
“Unfortunately for us that’s still the biggest factor between us winning and losing games, the free-throw line,” said UMaine coach Richard Barron. “I think we’re starting to shoot the free throws better but even in this game there were some clutch misses down the stretch. (And) we’re giving up so many points at the line and so many easy and-ones.”
Carroll finished with 22 points and seven rebounds for Hartford (9-9, 2-1 AE) while Jason Dunne scored 20, J.R. Lynch had 16 points and George Blagojevic added 14.
Vincent Eze paced UMaine (3-16, 1-3 AE) with 18 points and nine rebounds. Sergio El Darwich contributed 15 points, White netted 14, Vilgot Larsson posted 12 and Andrew Fleming had a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds.
Hartford was picked to finish second in the America East preseason poll with its five senior starters.
“I’m really impressed that we found a way to be gritty,” said Hartford coach John Gallagher. “We’re taking a lot of teams’ best punches, and that’s what happens when you get picked high like we did.”
“We’re playing for each other knowing we can win every game,” said El Darwich. “We’re a close group.”
UMaine connected on six of its first nine 3-point attempts while building as much as a 12-point advantage en route to a 33-24 halftime lead.
The Black Bears’ lead grew to as much as 43-30 on a baseline jumper by Fleming with 16:16 left in the game before Hartford finally got untracked offensively, soon ripping off 11 unanswered points within 89 seconds to close within 47-46 on a layup by George Blagojevic with 13:06 left.
“Our defense in the second half became a little stagnant,” said Barron. “We allowed them to get where they wanted to without a lot of ball pressure so they could see and get it to their shooters.”
Hartford finally took the lead at 54-53 on a Lynch 3-pointer with 8:20 to play, and a subsequent 9-0 run by the Hawks stretched their advantage to 62-54 with 5:35 left.
UMaine mounted one more rally, with Larsson hitting two 3-pointers and two free throws and El Darwich contributing five points and two assists as the Black Bears outscored Hartford 18-5 to take a 72-67 lead after Fleming made two free throws with less than 1:20 left.
The lead was still five at 75-70 with Lynch made a 3-pointer with 19.1 seconds remaining, and after a steal by the Hawks’ Travis Weatherington Lynch scored again on a putback to tie the game with with 10.9 seconds left.
