The University of New Hampshire men’s basketball team rattled off a 12-0 run in the second half to break open a close game and the Wildcats went on to post a 74-62 win over the University of Maine at Lundholm Gymnasium in Durham, New Hampshire, on Wednesday night.
UNH swept the season series from the Black Bears and improved to 13-13 overall and 8-6 in America East.
UMaine fell to 11-16 and 5-9.
It was UMaine’s third loss in its last four games.
Junior guard Nick Johnson’s 20 points sparked the Wildcats. Junior forward Clarence Davis had 19 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two steals. Junior guard Kyree Brown produced 15 points, four rebounds and five assists and graduate student Matthew Herasme had 12 points and three assists.
The Black Bears were led by sophomore guard Kellen Tynes, who registered 18 points, three rebounds, six assists and two steals.
Graduate student Gedi Juozapaitis had 15 points and sophomore forward Kristians Feierbergs had 11 points and three rebounds.
Ja’Shonte Wright-McLeish and Peter Filipovity each had seven points.
Feierbergs’ jumper with 8:13 left in the contest pulled UMaine within 52-46.
But the Black Bears missed their next three shots and turned the ball over once while UNH went on its decisive 12-0 run.
Johnson began the flurry with a 3-pointer off a Brown pass.
Following a missed UMaine 3-pointer, Johnson hit a jumper to extend the lead to 57-46.
Brown had a steal and then hit the next two jump shots before capping the flurry with a pass to Johnson for another three with 4:17 remaining.
UNH beat UMaine 71-58 at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Jan. 11.
UMaine will travel to play Binghamton on Saturday at 2 p.m. before hosting Bryant at the Memorial Gym on Senior Night next Tuesday at 7 p.m.
UNH will hit the road to take on UMass Lowell on Saturday at 5 p.m.
