The Maine Blackbears men’s team opened their exhibition season with a convincing 108-79 win over a very game D-3 Husson University team at the Cross Insurance Center on Saturday.
Maine raced out to a big early lead holding the Eagles scoreless for the first 3 minutes and then took a 17 point led 30-13.
But, Husson managed to cut it down to 8 @ 33-25 on 4 consecutive 3 pointers with 8 minutes remaining in the first half.
.Maine recovered for 53-34 halftime lead.The Eagles had too work so very hard to try to get back into the game that Maine’s depth was hard to overcome in the second half
Husson was hampered with lack of size with no player of 6’5″ to go against the size of UMaine with 2-6’8″ers, 3-6’7″ers and 1-6’6″er. Also, Maine’s overall depth was a big factor.
Newcomers leading UMaine were the following:
Freshmen Guard 6’5″ Dan Evans impressed with 13 points in 20 minutes of action
Freshmen Forward 6’7″ Andrew Fleming from Oxford Hills. Maine had 8 pts in 17 minutes
JUCO transfer Ilker Er was very impressive with 17 points in 19 minutes. He played the best of the newcomers with Evans a close second.
Transfer Junior 6’2″ Wes Myers looked good with 9 points in 18 minutes
Red Shirt freshmen 6’8″ Vincent Eze was strong off the boards and added 10 points in 16 minutes
Returning players from last years roster:
Lone returning starter 5’11” Aaron Calixe had 11 points in 17 minutes
Returning forward 6’7″ Ilija Stojiljkoviv had 5 points in 19 minutes
Returning 6’8″ senior Marco Pirovic had 13 points in 14 minutes
These 8 players scored 86 of the 108 points and played 140 of the 200 player minutes.
Raheem Anderson of Husson lead all scorers with 25 points and was backed up by Alonzo McCain with 14 and Eli Erlin with 11 points.
Maine’s size was just too much for the Eagles as they were out rebounded 46 to 32 as Maine scored 48 points in the paint to Husson’s 22.
Each team had 16 turnovers.
Calixe (6) and Bernstein (5) had half of Maine’s 22 assists.
Husson was limited to just 9 assists by the hustling half-court trapping on all screens to or ball to the screens situtations.
Most of Husson’s hoops came off dribble penetration drives to the basket.
Maine was 12 of 33 from 3 point line for 36.4% and Husson was 11 for 33 for 33%. Maine as 38 for 70 from the floor for 54.3% and Husson was 26 for 70 for 37.1%.
Maine was 20 for 28 from the line for 71.4% and Husson 16-21.for 76.2%.
Husson committed 22 fouls to Maine’s 20.
Maine is back in action on Saturday, Nov. 5th… 30 minutes after the home football game with Villanova, at “THE PIT” in the Memorial Gym when they host University of Maine at Fort Kent.
Husson returns to play on Nov. 17th when they host rival St. Josephs College of Standish, Maine at 5:30pm at the Newman Gym.