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The University of Maine men’s basketball team did exactly what they had to do against a depleted University of Hartford squad Sunday afternoon, coasting to their 10th conference win by the score of 66-52 at Alfond Arena Sunday afternoon.
The win, which brought UMaine to 18-9 (10-4 America East) on the season was made easier for the Black Bears when it was announced before the game that Hartford starters Andres Torres, Anthony Minor, and leading scorer Joe Zeglinski would be sidelined for the game due to violation of team rules.
“It was something on our campus and I don’t want to make more of this than it is,” said Hartford coach Dan Leibovitz. “These are great kids, this is not criminal behavior, this is just something as a coach that I wanted to make a statement on and hope that message sinks in, and I think it did.”
In their place, the Hawks rolled out a young and inexperienced lineup that struggled to keep up with UMaine’s physical frontline, but put out an effort that satisfied their coach.
“We were a little overmatched going into it with the youth and personnel we put on the floor,” Leibovitz said. “But I felt pretty good about it, it’s a very good team we were playing against.”
For UMaine’s part, they played a balanced game on both ends of the floor, out-rebounding Hartford 49 to 26, and out-scoring them in the paint 38 to 14. America East Player of the Game Junior Bernal, who was honored for scoring his 1,000th career point at UNH on Monday, spearheaded both efforts as he stuffed the stat sheet to the tune of 13 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and did yeoman’s work on the defensive end with three steals.
“He’s been doing that for us all year,” said UMaine coach Ted Woodward. “You don’t become a 1,000-point scorer, 500 rebounds, 300 assists and 150 steals-player without being very consistent in all of those areas. He’s been doing a great job all season long.”
Forwards Sean McNally and Murphy Burnatowski were also instrumental in wearing down the Hawks’ depleted lineup. McNally led UMaine in both scoring and rebounding, with 16 apiece to go with two blocks and several more altered shots. Burnatowski added 10 points and seven rebounds while also recording two blocks.
“We really focused on rebounding cause that’s something we have struggled in the past with,” Burnatowski said. “We’re focusing on getting a box out on every man, getting a rebound and attacking the glass and getting some second shots.”
They out-rebounded Hartford by a whopping margin of 23 and recorded 16 second-chance points.
McNally held this game as a mold that the Black Bears need to continue to use to have success down the stretch of the season.
“We have to keep having the mindset that nobody is going to come out and hand us a game,” he said. “We have to go and play our basketball. We have to lock down on defense, attack the glass like we did tonight and keep going at the rim on the offensive end.”
UMaine will play their final home game of the season this Wednesday at the Alfond Arena and will look to keep up the consistency they have displayed all season. Bernal will be honored as the team’s lone senior before tip-off against the University of Albany which is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Bangor Daily News