Maine held a lead in both the first and second half on Tuesday night, but the Denver Pioneers made a late second half run to pull away from the Bears 62-50 at Magness Arena in Denver, Colorado in the two teams mutual men’s basketball season opener.
Maine (0-1) held leads on four different occasions in the opening 20 minutes, but not by more than four points. Denver (1-0) made an 11-0 run to take their biggest lead to that point at 25-18, before the Black Bears scored nine of the last 11 first half points to tie the game 27-27 at the half.
Maine took their final lead 39-38 when Terion Moss buried a three pointer with 11:05 to play. The Pioneers then ran off 12 straight points to make it 50-39, and the Bears never got any closer than nine the rest of the way, as the hosts opened up the lead to as many as 17.
Andrew Fleming led Maine with 10 points and six rebounds. Isaiah White had nine points, while both Moss and Vilgot Larsson added eight points. Ronnie Harrell, Jr. led Denver with 18 points and 13 rebounds, while Jase Townsend added 16 points. Maine shot 31 percent from the floor, while Denver was 42 percent. The Bears also turned the ball over 15 times, as compared to nine for the Pioneers.
Maine will now travel to Utah to battle the Utes on Thursday night at 9 p.m.
