The University of Maine men’s basketball team brought The Pit to its feet on Saturday afternoon, as the Black Bears gutted out a much-needed 79-72 comeback victory over the No. 3 Bulldogs.
Right off the bat, the Black Bears had their backs against the wall, as UMaine started out 4-for-16 from the field and faced a worrying 27-16 Bryant lead 12 minutes into play. But with the home crowd in their ears, the Black Bears powered through, stealing the ball 12 times and scoring 46 second half points.
The victory snapped a two-game skid for the Black Bears, who had lost five of their first seven America East games and eight of their last ten. With the win, UMaine improved to 3-5 in conference (11-12 overall), while Bryant moved to 6-2 (14-9 overall).
The tides turned toward UMaine’s favor late in the first half, as the hosts used a Bryant technical foul and two electric AJ Lopez buckets to retake a 31-29 lead with two minutes to go. In the second half, Lopez and company picked up where they left off, as the junior nailed a 3-pointer followed by an and-one play to turn a 35-33 halftime deficit into a 51-45 lead in less than seven minutes.
A minute and a half later, juniors Quion Burns and Kristians Feierbergs had helped extend UMaine’s lead to 57-47. But Bryant’s Conference-best offense wasn’t going to stay quiet for long.
Quickly rattling off seven straight points, the Bulldogs would eventually cut it to one point on two separate occasions, but were never able to retake the lead.