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The University of Maine men’s basketball team suffered a tough loss to the hands of Brown University on Saturday afternoon by a score of 62-54.
The loss drops UMaine to 2-4, while Brown improves to 4-3 on the season.
Brown played a 1-3-1 match-up zone for most of the first half. The zone forced outside shots for Maine and an inability to get second chance points and rebounds was a problem for Maine throughout the game.
UMaine’s high scorer, sophomore forward Murphy Burnatowski with 15 points talked about rebounding, as the Black Bears were outdone by 10 on the boards.
“We know we have to rebound,” Burnatowski said. “We will continue to work on that, and we will get some shots to fall for us in the future.”
Despite the slow start for UMaine, they ended the half on a 9-2 run, giving the team momentum going into the second half.
Junior point guard Raheem Singleton pushed the tempo, allowing Burnatowski to get an open look in transition for a three. The half ended with a buzzer-beater by sophomore center Mike Allison from the elbow, giving the Black Bears a one-point, 28-27 lead going into the locker room.
Maine had another 6-0 run to start the second half by boxing out and getting Singleton to push the tempo as much as possible. Maine continued to play well at the start of the half with 13 minutes left Singleton took it to the hoop for two and on the next trip down the court drove left before spinning back to the middle for a nice layup giving Maine a good chance to win the game. Singleton finished with 11 points, four assists, and six rebounds.
“I liked how we came out in the second half,” head coach Ted Woodward said. “We made a nice push and got some shots in transition.”
Yet, Brown switched to man-to-man and UMaine was never able to get the offense going and run their plays effectively. Maine only scored one field goal in the last eight minutes of the game, on a nice three pointer from junior guard Gerald Mclemore at the 4:23 mark from the left wing — the last time Maine held the lead. Maine finished shooting 36.2 percent from the field.
“I wish we had shot the ball better, especially in the first half,” Woodward said. “Thought we had a lot of good looks, unfortunately they didn’t go in for us.”
Senior forward Peter Sullivan was the high scorer for Brown with 21 points. Sullivan came into the game averaging 14.8 points per game, good for 10th overall in Ivy League this season. Despite a poor night shooting from the field, going 4-12 from the field, Sullivan was quite the contrary from the free throw line going a perfect 13-13.
Brown and Sullivan attacked the rim for throughout the game and made the most of their opportunities finishing at 17-17 from the line.
With the game coming down to the wire, UMaine got another chance with full court pressure down by two with 23 seconds left. What seemed to be a jump ball or a travel on Brown’s sophomore forward Tucker Halpern, was only called as a late foul. Despite the complaints from the coaches and all of Alfond Arena. the call stood as a foul and Halpern went to the free throw line to ice the game.
Troy Barnies was also very active for the Black Bears, finishing with seven points, seven rebounds, and four steals.
The Black Bears take on Delaware State on Monday, Dec. 6 at the Alfond Arena. They travel to the University of Massachusetts on Dec. 8 to take on the Minutemen.
Bangor Daily News