The University of Maine men’s basketball team suffered its third consecutive America East loss on Saturday night, falling 68-57 to No. 1 Vermont after a streaky 40 minutes of basketball.
The loss pushed UMaine down to eighth in the America East standings — with a conference record of 3-8 — after losses to No. 2 Bryant and No. 4 New Hampshire this past week. Vermont improved to 11-1, and would host UMaine in the first round of the America East tournament if the season ended today.
Saturday night’s battle started poorly for the hosts UMaine, conceding three Vermont 3-pointers early on and facing a 15-3 deficit just four minutes into play. Battling back over the next 12 minutes, the Black Bears overtook the Catamounts 28-25 on a Jaden Clayton 3-pointer, but then gave up an 11-1 scoring run to end the half down 36-29.
“We got off to a really slow start, and kinda clawed our way back,” second-year head coach Chris Markwood said. “We were getting stops, doing some really good things, but [junior Kellen Tynes and sophomore Jaden Clayton] got some fouls late in the half and we didn’t finish strong.”
In the second half, UMaine cut Vermont’s lead down to five on multiple occasions but ultimately couldn’t find an appropriate offensive spark to complete the comeback, shooting just 4-for-17 from beyond the arc and 11-for-21 from the free throw line on Saturday.
Tynes and Clayton finished as UMaine’s leading scorers with 17 and 13 points, respectively, and four fouls apiece. The duo combined to shoot 12-for-24 from the field, while the rest of the team shot just 9-for-33.
Vermont, meanwhile, shot 18-for-21 from the free throw line, 21-for-47 from the field, and 8-for-21 from beyond the arc. Catamount junior guard Shamir Bogues led all scorers with 21 points, seven rebounds and three assists on 7-for-13 shooting. Seven different Catamounts made 3-pointers on Saturday.
“Credit a lot of that to Vermont. They’re good. They really guard you,” Markwood said. “We had some good looks, but you know [3-point shooting] has been our Achilles heel. We’ve been inconsistent from there.”
In America East play, Vermont has the Conference’s No. 1 defense with just 60.1 points allowed per game, and the No. 6 offense at 71.1 ppg. UMaine’s defense comes in second at 68.6 ppg, but has the Conference’s second-worst offense, scoring 65.9 ppg. The Black Bears are shooting 31.8 percent from three.
Next up, the Black Bears will host No. 7 Maryland-Baltimore County (4-8) on Thursday at 6 p.m. and then No. 9 New Jersey Tech (3-9) on Saturday at 2 p.m. Both games will be played at The Pit.
“They’re all must-wins,” Markwood said.