The University of Maine men’s basketball team played its first game at Memorial Gymnasium since Dec. 9 on Thursday night and did not disappoint in its return to campus.
A highly anticipated dogfight between the University of Albany’s fast-paced, high-scoring offense and UMaine’s scrappy, turnover-driven defense, the Black Bears emerged victorious on Thursday night, fending off a fierce Albany comeback bid to win it 81-73.
Leading 38-34 at halftime, UMaine forged an emphatic 22-11 run when play resumed, using three Albany turnovers and 10 Peter Filipovity points to outscore the Great Danes over the next eight minutes. Turning to its potent full court press in crunch time, Albany suddenly shrunk the deficit to 71-68 with 3:11 remaining, but UMaine’s defense bore down to stop the comeback there.
It was UMaine’s second consecutive victory — despite six Black Bear turnovers in the last seven minutes of play — and Albany’s third consecutive loss. Both teams stand at 2-3 in Conference play this season, with 10-10 overall records.
“I love The Pit (at Memorial Gymnasium). It’s so much fun — especially in games like this,” Filipovity said. “Coming into this game, we knew we were the better team, and we got the job done.”
The 6-foot-7 Hungarian senior tied his career high with 23 points on Thursday night, shooting 8-from-11 from the field and pulling down 11 rebounds (three offensive). Filipovity also drew five fouls and had a team-best plus-minus of 12.
In the first half, Filipovity’s Eastern European teammate Kristians Feierbergs set the Black Bears up for a great 3-point shooting night, going 3-for-3 from beyond the arc. The 6-foot-10 Latvian junior finished with 16 points (4-for-5 from three) on the night, plus five rebounds and four assists.
As a team, UMaine shot 8-for-16 from three. Prior to tonight’s game, the Black Bears had been shooting just 29.8 percent from deep.
“There’s not a lot I can say; my teammates found me and I knocked down the shots,” Feierbergs said. “The shots felt nice, hopefully I can get a good streak going.”
UMaine’s other double-digit scorers on Thursday night were junior guard Kellen Tynes with 15 points, junior forward AJ Lopez with 10, and sophomore point guard Jaden Clayton with 10. Collectively, the trio shot 12-for-24 from the field.
Albany’s top performers were junior guard Sebastian Thomas (20 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals) and sophomore forward Jonathan Beagle (14 points, 13 rebounds, two steals). Albany forced 18 UMaine turnovers on Thursday night, and conceded 15.
“We won a little bit ugly there. We average 10 or 11 turnovers a game, which is an unbelievable number,” head coach Chris Markwood said. “Albany already plays super aggressively, and when you get up big like that, that just gives them the freedom to be even more all in that way. We were sloppy. This is good to learn from it.”
Next up, UMaine will host Bingamton (0-5 in America East) at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
