The University of Maine men’s basketball team bent but didn’t break against Albany on the road Saturday night, beating the Great Danes 74-71 in overtime.
Up 64-55 with 3:40 remaining in the game, two timeouts and two offensive rebounds weren’t enough for UMaine to settle in and close the game out, as Albany stormed back to tie it up 64-64 with 20 seconds remaining.
UMaine had an opportunity to win it in regulation, but Albany met UMaine sophomore Jaden Clayton (eight points, four assists) and then junior Kellen Tynes (14 points, three assists, two steals, three blocks) at the rim two consecutive times for defensive stops.
In overtime, the Black Bears and Great Danes exchanged four lead changes but UMaine was ultimately the team ahead when time expired, scoring the last four points of the game on free throws from true sophomore Jaden Clayton and junior transfer Quion Burns.
“We kinda controlled the game up until the last five minutes, but Albany played with pace and made some big plays,” second-year UMaine head coach Chris Markwood said. “It was a heavily contested overtime, [but] we made some foul shots to win it. The kid Quion Burns is playing his best basketball of the year — he’s really grown, and gotten better on the defensive end.”
Burns led UMaine in bench scoring with 11 points in 11 minutes, plus a key offensive rebound with 18 seconds remaining in overtime to seal it. Albany junior guard Sebastian Thomas (21 points, 8-for-20 shooting, four rebounds, two assists) led all scorers, and UMaine senior forward Peter Filipovity led all Black Bears with 20 points (10-for-16 shooting, seven rebounds).
UMaine shot 16-for-23 from the free throw line (70 percent) on Saturday, and 27-for-60 from the field (45 percent). Through 15 games of conference play, the Black Bears are shooting 42.5 percent from the field, and 71.8 percent from the stripe.
It was UMaine’s third win in four games, and second consecutive road game decided in overtime. With the victory, UMaine (6-9 in-Conference, 14-16 overall) moved up to sixth in the America East standings, while Albany (5-10 in-Conference, 13-17 overall) dropped to eighth of nine.
The victory also locked down at least the No. 7 seed for the Black Bears, who could finish as high as fifth with one game left before the America East tournament. They are currently behind No. 5 Binghamton (6-9) and ahead of No.7 Maryland-Baltimore County (6-9) due to head-to-head tiebreakers this year.
UMaine’s regular season finale will be against No. 2 UMass-Lowell (11-4 in-Conference, 20-8 overall) at The Pit at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. The America East quarterfinals will take place on Saturday, March 9, at a time and location to be determined.
“We didn’t get a home playoff game this year, which is a goal of ours,” Markwood said. “But [regardless of] whoever is put in front of you, you gotta play good basketball.”
