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The University of Maine men’s basketball team held tough against the No. 4 University of Connecticut but in the end fell short against the reigning national champions by a score of 80-60 on Thursday night.
UMaine traveled to Hartford without two of their best players in the lineup — senior guard Gerald McLemore and junior forward Mike Allison were both out with injuries — yet only trailed the Huskies 36-31 at halftime.
After falling behind 7-0, the Black Bears had a seven-point swing of their own, going on a 9-to-2 run and tying the game at nine.
UConn went back up by five, taking a 17-12 lead, but the Black Bears continued to hang around and tied the game at 17 after a pair of free throws from senior guard Raheem Singleton.
With 5 minutes remaining in the first half, UMaine trailed again but continued to claw back, inspired by senior guard Andrew Rogers.
Rogers, listed at 5-foot-9-inches, showed the fight in the Black Bears as he drove from the left side where two Huskie defenders waited for him at the rim, leapt from the block, double-clutched in the air and hung there long enough to loft the ball over the outstretched hand of Connecticut’s 6-foot-10-inch freshman forward Andre Drummond.
In the next offensive possession for UMaine, freshman forward Kilian Cato gave a strong pump fake to get the Connecticut defender off of his feet and drove hard into the middle of the paint before finishing with a soft runner to cut the deficit to four points.
Cato lead UMaine with eight points in the first half, while Singleton had seven.
UMaine started the second half much slower than the first. The Huskies jumped out scoring the first five points of the half, while the Black Bears didn’t score a field goal until 9 minutes remaining in the second half.
Despite the loss, there were still many positives for the Black Bears in Thursday’s contest. Freshman guard Justin Edwards filled up the stat sheet, scoring a game-high 20 points to go along with five rebounds, two assists and two steals.
UMaine only had nine players available but were struck with foul trouble. Sophomore center Alasdair Fraser fouled out, as did Cato, while backup senior center Svetoslav Chetinov finished with four personal fouls.
Singleton finished the day with nine points and Rogers chipped in eight to go along with six assists.
UConn’s Drummond finished the contest with 11 points and 14 rebounds, 11 of them on the offensive end. Junior forward Alex Oriakhi finished 16 points, as did Huskies sophomore forward Jeremy Lamb.
UMaine returns home Nov. 27 to host the College of the Holy Cross in the Alfond Arena.
