The University of Maine men’s and women’s basketball teams both were in action Saturday in non-conference games. The men hosted Central Connecticut State and tried to win their third home game of the season, while the women were on the road facing the team ranked 10th in the mid-major poll, the Northeastern Huskies.
In Bangor at the Cross Insurance Center, despite some late game heroics and overtime heroics from Sergio El Darwich, the Maine men’s basketball team dropped a tough 93-90 double overtime decision to Central Connecticut State.
El Darwich had sent the game to overtime by hitting a challenged three pointer at the buzzer to tie the game 73-73. El Darwich then did it again in the first overtime as the Bears trailed by three with seven seconds left. The junior guard nailed yet another three pointer with just one second left to send it to a second overtime 84-84. Maine (2-11) took an early lead in double overtime on a layup, but the Blue Devils tied it back up, before a three pointer by Joe Hugley gave CCSU an 89-86 lead with 1:27 left. El Darwich hit his fourth three pointer of the game to knot it again with 1:01 remaining. Tyler Kohl then hit a jumper with 26 seconds left on clock to give the visitors the two point edge. El Darwich hit 1-2 from the line to cut it to 91-90 with 10 seconds left, before Jamir Coleman hit a pair from charity stripe with six seconds showing on the clock. Isaiah White tried for the tie at the buzzer, but the ball bounced off the back of the rim and fell out.
El Darwich had a career best 26 points (4-8 three pointers) and also added four rebounds. White had 22 points and five rebounds, while Andrew Fleming added 18 points and nine rebounds. Kohl had a game high 33 points and seven rebounds for CCSU (5-5). Ian Krishnan had 17 points, while Deion Bute added 13, and Coleman had 11 points and 10 rebounds. The Blue Devils were 31-35 at the free throw line, while the Black Bears were 17-25. Maine is at Rutgers next Saturday at 3 pm.
At Cabot Gym in Boston, Maine got a 22 point and eight rebound effort from Tanesha Sutton but it wasn’t enough, as the Bears fell short at Northeastern 63-55.
In a very close and tight first half, Maine (7-4) held their biggest lead of four points on a Sutton layup almost halfway through the second quarter. Northeastern (10-1) had also held as much as a four point lead to that point, before the Huskies turned it on in the last 5:33 of the first half. NU ran off the final 13 points of the second to take a 36-27 halftime lead, led by six points from Ayanna Dublin and five from Shannon Todd during the run.
Maine still trailed by seven after three quarters, and got as close as five the rest of the way as Northeastern led by as many as 12 on their way to their 10th victory. Maine is now on a two game losing streak for the second time this season.
Blanca Millan added 11 points and five rebounds for Maine. Stella Clark led NU with 15 points and eight rebounds. Gabby Giacone added 13 points, and six rebounds while Dublin had a double double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Maine plays in a post-Christmas tournament next weekend at Fordham. The Bears face the tournament host Rams next Saturday at 1 pm in the Bronx, New York, and then will face either Chattanooga or Middle Tennessee State on Sunday.
