Keyed by a red-hot start from junior Kellen Tynes, the University of Maine men’s basketball team beat the College of the Holy Cross on the road Wednesday night, 72-57.
Reigning NCAA steals champion and America East Defensive Player of the Year Tynes showed off his offensive capabilities on Wednesday, scoring 20 first-half points on 7-for-9 shooting — including three 3-pointers — to guide UMaine to a 37-29 lead at the break.
Tynes finished with 26 points, a career high, on just 13 field goal attempts.
It was the Black Bears’ first ever win over Holy Cross away in program history, after losing two of the first ten meetings between the teams. With the victory, UMaine improved to 5-4 on the year, and Holy Cross moved to 2-6.
In the second half, Holy Cross held Tynes to just four field goal attempts, so senior forward Peter Filipovity and sophomore point guard Jaden Clayton stepped up for the Black Bears. The duo stuffed the stat sheet, combining for 28 points, 16 rebounds, seven steals and six assists.
On defense, UMaine had one of its best performances of the year, yielding a season-low 57 points. UMaine benefitted from a few missed lay-ups by the Crusaders, but still held Holy Cross to just 23-for-58 shooting (39.7 percent) from the field and 4-for-17 from three.
Holy Cross had been averaging 65 points scored per game this season, on 44.6 percent shooting.
UMaine’s defense also forced more turnovers (8 to 11) than Holy Cross did, and committed fewer personal fouls (13 to 20).
The silver lining for Holy Cross was its rebounding and bench play. As a team, Holy Cross outrebounded UMaine 32 to 30, (10 offensive boards to UMaine’s 7). Meanwhile, senior guard Bo Montgomery scored 14 of Holy Cross’ 27 bench points.
Next up, UMaine will play just its third home game of the season on Sunday, against 2-5 Brown University at noon. The Black Bears will play the Bears at The Pit.
