UMaine battled back in the second half with a couple big runs but at the end couldn’t find the winning bucket as Marist escaped with a 62-61 victory in London as part of the Basketball Hall of Fame London Showcase.
The Black Bears fell to 4-4 on the season with Sunday’s loss, its third in a row. Marist won its third in a row and is now 4-4, as well.
Kellen Tynes and Ja’Shonté Wright-McLeish both scored 12 points to lead the Black Bears in scoring, but UMaine struggled to stop Marist’s Patrick Gardner who led all scorers with 27 points.
Gardner hit a three-pointer at the top of the arc to tie the game up at 53-53 with 5:40 to play.
From there, Tynes hit a smooth layup and then on the next possession found Kristians Feierbergs with a touch pass under the basket who then hit a layup, giving UMaine a 57-53 lead with 4:23 to go.
Gedi Juozapaitis, who is from London, hit a layup of his own to put UMaine up 59-53 with 2:47 left.
Marist then got a layup and a three-pointer from Kam Farris to pull within 59-58 with 1:30 to play. On the Red Fox’s next possession, Gardner hit yet another three to take a 60-59 lead for Marist.
After two made free throws from Ata Turgut, Farris on the other end grabbed two offensive rebounds and hit a layup over Turgut to take back a 62-61 lead for Marist with 25 seconds left.
Farris then missed the front-end of a one-and-one free throw opportunity, and UMaine grabbed the rebound. UMaine’s Jaden Clayton pushed the ball up the court and the ball found
Wright-McLeish at the top of the three-point line. Wright-McLeish missed the three, but Tynes grabbed the offensive rebound, one of 11 boards on the day, and put up a 15-foot jumper as time expired but it bounced out and Marist was able to hang on for the victory.
In the first half, Marist was tough inside and jumped out to an early lead.
The Red Foxes jumped out to an early 14-8 lead seven minutes into the game.
Tynes then took a hard drive to the hoop, scored an acrobatic layup and got fouled. Tynes hit the free throw and with 12:02 left in the first half the Black Bears trailed 14-11.
Stephane Igno, a Marist grad transfer from UMaine, hit a layup that gave the Red Foxes a 20-14 lead with 9:04 left in the first half.
Clayton, a freshman guard, hit back-to-back tough shots inside and then Wright-McLeish stole the ball at the top of the key and scored on the fastbreak to tie the game at 20-20. It was the closest the Black Bears got to Marist all half.
Later in the half, Juozapaitis scored his first and only bucket of the first half on a turn-around jumper in the paint to pull UMaine within 24-23 with 4:15 left.
Gardner, who finished the first half with 14 points on 6-8 shooting, scored a three-pointer and a layup in the final four minutes to help the Red Foxes to a 31-28 halftime lead.
In the final minute of the half, Clayton tallied his third foul of the game.
Wright-McLeish scored a three-pointer 3:34 into the second half to tie the game at 36 a piece before Marist jumped out to a seven-point lead on back-to-back buckets by Gardner, 43-36, with 13:10 to play.
From there, the Black Bears went on a 14-2 run to take a 50-45 lead with 7:36 to play.
UMaine’s first lead came with 8:54 left in the game when Peter Filipvoity hit a layup and was fouled. Filipvoity hit the free throw and UMaine held a 46-45 lead.
UMaine will fly back home on Monday and get ready to face the University of Maine at Augusta on Thursday.
