Jai Steadman earned his first victory as the University of Maine men’s basketball interim head coach Sunday afternoon as the Black Bears scored a come-from-behind 65-61 victory over the New Jersey Institute of Technology at Memorial Gymnasium on the Orono campus.
The win lifts UMaine to 6-20 overall, 3-12 in America East play. NJIT, which beat UMaine 69-66 in Newark, New Jersey, on Jan. 2, is now 11-14 overall, 6-9 in the conference.
Junior guard Ja’Shonte Wright-McLeish scored a team-high 17 points for the Black Bears, who were playing their first game since the university and fourth-year head coach Richard Barron mutually agreed to part ways on Thursday.
Stephane Ingo added 12 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots for UMaine, while Peter Filipovity came off the bench to contribute 10 points and seven rebounds and Sam Ihekwoaba scored nine points.
Miles Coleman scored a game-high 24 points for NJIT, while Matt Faw had 14 points and Souleymene Diakite contributed 13 points and 12 rebounds.
The Black Bears actually came back twice in this game, first to take a 36-34 halftime lead after NJIT built a 25-10 lead with 11:17 left in the opening half.
NJIT then outscored UMaine 9-2 to open the second half to re-take the lead at 43-38, and that advantage grew to as much as 49-40 on a 3-pointer by Coleman with 11:50 remaining.
UMaine gradually crept back and finally tied the contest at 57-57 on a 3-pointer by Ihekwoaba with 4:05 to play.
That was the first of three late ties before UMaine took the lead for good at 63-61 when Ihekwoaba scored off a Wright-McLeish feed with 1:13 left.
The Black Bears added an insurance basket when Ihekwoaba threw a length-of-the-court inbounding pass to Vukasin Masic for a layup that gave UMaine a two-possession lead — its largest lead of the contest — with 11 seconds remaining.
UMaine finished with 19 assists on its 27 field goals compared to just six turnovers. NJIT had 13 turnovers and eight assists.
