ORONO, Maine — Coming off a lopsided loss at Bryant, the University of Maine’s men’s basketball team found itself staring at a 10-point deficit with 17:08 left in its America East home opener against Binghamton and a potential 0-2 conference start.
But then the Black Bears kicked everything into gear, outscoring the Bearcats 43-22 the rest of the way to earn an 82-71 victory before 508 fans at the Memorial Gym.
Graduate student guard Kellen Tynes scored 17 of his game-high 25 points in the second half and senior guard A.J. Lopez finished with 21 points as the Black Bears improved to 9-8 overall and 1-1 in conference play.
Binghamton is also 9-8 and 1-1.
Tynes also had six assists, six steals and four rebounds.
Lopez had four rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Quion Burns had 10 points and seven rebounds for the Black Bears, Jayden Clayton had nine points, five assists and three rebounds and Killian Gribben and Christopher Mantis had six points each. Gribben blocked three shots and had two rebounds.
Tymu Chenery’s 20 points, seven rebounds, four blocks and four assists led Binghamton. Nehemiah Benson and Gavin Walsh had 12 points each and Evan Ashe had 11. Benson also had five rebounds and three assists, Walsh had four rebounds and two assists and Ashe had two rebounds.
The Black Bears were trailing 49-39 when Tynes began the comeback with a traditional 3-point as he was fouled driving to the basket after receiving a Clayton pass.
He duplicated that seconds later to make it 49-45.
Lopez scored the next two baskets off layups to tie it, the first one coming off a Binghamton turnover.
The teams exchanged leads until a nifty spin move by Tynes produced a traditional 3-point play with 10:51 left to give UMaine the lead for good at 60-58 and then Tynes fed Burns for a 3-pointer to make it 63-58.
The Bearcats eventually pulled to within 65-64 before UMaine went on a decisive 11-2 run to give the Black Bears a 10-point lead with 4:49 left and Binghamton couldn’t get any closer than seven the rest of the way.
A Lopez foul shot started the flurry and the Bearcats then missed their first two free throws as Chenery missed both after Binghamton had connected on its first 15 foul shots.
Tynes hit another layup and Clayton sank two free throws after stealing the ball and being fouled.
Ben Callahan-Gold converted a Wes Peterson inbounds pass to cut the deficit to 70-66 but UMaine answered with six unanswered points when Gribben scored from underneath the basket off a Mantis pass, Clayton hit an eight-foot jump shot and Tynes stole the ball and laid it in.
Tynes entered the game second in the nation in steals with 50.
The Black Bears forced seven important turnovers off their 3-2 zone in the second half and shot a sizzling 73.1 percent from the floor compared to Binghamton’s 36.4 percent.
“The zone gave us life,” said UMaine head coach Chris Markwood. “It allowed us to get some stops and get out in transition. And that turned into better offense.
“If you handle your business on the defensive end, it usually leads to better offense and that’s what it was in the second half,” he added.
Binghamton coach Levell Sanders said what happened in the second half was “exactly what we didn’t want to happen. We started turning the ball over against the zone and that gave them the ability to get out (in transition). They got confidence, they started playing a little more aggressive.
“I don’t know how many steals Tynes had but he makes guys uneasy when he’s out there, especially when he’s roaming around a 3-2 zone and nobody’s watching him. He’s picking passes off,” added the Binghamton coach.
UMaine outscored Binghamton 28-12 in the paint in the second half after Binghamton had a 26-6 edge in the first half.
“You have to make them score from outside and we didn’t do that today,” said Sanders.
Tynes said after the 81-55 loss to Bryant, they held a players-only meeting.
“We talked about some stuff we needed to do better and we responded today,” said Tynes, who felt everyone produced something positive. “We got back to our identity and we’re going to make sure we carry that for the rest of our conference games.”
“This was a testament to our grit and our hunger for the game,” said Lopez. “We felt we really had to bounce back from the loss we had.
“In the first half, they were playing more of their game but, in the second half, we played more of our game, forcing turnovers and slowing them down and that worked in our favor,” Lopez added.
The Bearcats shot a blistering 64 percent from the floor in the first half to take a 40-32 lead into the intermission.
Ashe came off the bench and scored nine first-half points on 3-for-4 shooting from the floor and a perfect 3-for-3 from the foul line.
Walker and Benson had eight points apiece and Chenery had seven.
Lopez led all first-half scorers with 11 points and Tynes had eight. Mantis hit a pair of threes off the bench.
UMaine shot 39.3 percent from the floor and just 40 percent from the free throw line (4-10).
Binghamton made all five of its free throw attempts.
The Bearcats rattled off a 15-8 run close out the first half with Ashe scoring seven of the points.
UMaine will host Albany on Saturday at 2 while Binghamton will visit New Hampshire for a 1 p.m. contest.
