UMaine men’s basketball wins big in ‘The Pit’

Small crowd sees 74-54 win over Norfolk St. in historic gym

Posted on Dec. 12, 2010, at 8:06 p.m.

It was the annual men’s basketball game held in the timeless Memorial Gym, affectionately referred to as “The Pit.” The University of Maine Black Bears surely brought their A-game for this special tilt.

Too bad not many were there to see it.

In an ill-timed event the day before the start of finals week, an estimated 700 fans watched the Black Bears devoured Norfolk State University, beating the Spartans 74-54 Sunday afternoon in the spacious gym in Orono.

“Just really good team defense, all around,” Black Bears head coach Ted Woodward said. “Our guys really bought in to some of the things we have to do.”

Senior guard Terrance Mitchell led the Black Bears with 22 points in just 14 minutes, including a minute-and-a-half stretch in the second half when he ran off 10 straight Black Bear points. Junior guard Gerald McLemore was the only other Black Bear in double figures, scoring 12 points on 4-10 from three-point range.

“I knew my role was to come in and have a lot of energy,” Mitchell said. “I hit one and as soon as I saw it go through the net I felt like everything I shot was good — except from the free throw line.”

Mitchell did miss more free throws than threes, going 5-7 from beyond the arc but just 3-6 from the charity stripe.

The Black Bears started the game with a 7-0 run, aided by five quick points by sophomore forward Murphy Burnatowski. The Spartans managed to tie the game at 14 all, but the Black Bears soon pulled ahead by 12.

The half ended with UMaine up 14 while shooting 62.5 percent from the field. The Black Bears continued to pile it on at the beginning of the second half, with Mitchell’s streak extending the lead to an insurmountable 27.

The Black Bears stepped up their stingy defensive play, keeping the Spartans to 29.6 percent shooting in the second half, and 34.6 for the game. The Black Bears were able to connect on half of their attempts from the field, going 27-50 from two-point range and 10-22 from beyond the arc.

When asked if there was more emotion with the game held in “The Pit,” Woodward and the players were quick to respond.

“No question,” Woodward said. “I get into the locker room and kids ask me if we can play every game in here. It’s fun.”

“It feels good because we practice there every day,” McLemore said. “But at the end of the day it doesn’t matter where we play, you got to perform.”

The Black Bears were able to revenge a last-second loss to the Spartans from a year earlier, when Kyle O’Quinn won it in the closing minutes of a game that saw the Black Bears up by 14 in the second half.

“It gave us more motivation to go out in the second half and finish off the game,” McLemore said of the previous meeting between the teams. “We knew we couldn’t get on our heels and let them come back.”

The Black Bears have a week until their next game, when they host Colgate University on Dec. 19.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 12th, 2010, 8:06 pm. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.