BANGOR, Me- John Carroll knocked in a pair of free throws with less than a second left on Wednesday night, as the Hartford Hawks men’s basketball team rallied to defeat Maine 77-76 at the Cross Insurance Center in America East action.
Maine (3-16, 1-3 AE) played a strong first half and strong early second half. Fueled by a 9-0 run the Bears had as much as a 12 point first half lead at 29-17, and their biggest lead was 43-30 early in the second half after holding a 33-24 lead at intermission. Hartford never quit however and worked their way back into the game. The Hawks used a 23-9 run to take a 53-52 lead with 8:30 to play on a J.R. Lynch three pointer, their first lead since the early stages of the first half.
Hartford (9-9, 2-1) would then extend that lead to 62-54, forcing the Black Bears to then have to rally. Three pointers by Vilgot Larsson and Sergio El Darwich pulled Maine within 63-62, before Isaiah White hit a three to tie it and Larsson hit another to give the hosts a 68-65 advantage with 2:09 to play. It looked to be in hand for a home victory for Maine, as El Darwich hit a layup late and Terion Moss hit one of two from the line for a five point lead 75-70. Jason Dunne though hit a three from the corner with 15 seconds left to cut it to 75-73, and then a steal by Travis Weatherington led to a Lynch layup to tie the game. White got fouled on a late attempt in the lane to win it, and hit one of two from the line to make it 76-75 Bears with 3.1 seconds left. After a timeout, Hartford threw one down court that ended up in the hands of Carroll who went to the basket hard and was fouled with just 0.5 seconds showing on the clock. Carroll hit both to send the Hawks home with the win. “Yeah I caught it and knew I only had one dribble, and I didn’t see any shooters around me and knew we were down one so I figured the best option was for me to go hard to the rim. We shoot free throws in practice, like alot, so we try to make it competitive and try to make it an environment like that pressure filled, that was something else”, said Carroll.
Vincent Eze led five players in double figures for Maine with 18 points and nine rebounds. El Darwich had 15, White 14, Larssen 12, and Andrew Fleming added 10 points and 14 rebounds. Maine head coach Richard Barron said, “Obviously an exciting game, game of runs and a game of halfs. Thought we left alot of points out there in first half, thought we could have had a much bigger first half lead and that obviously in a one point game made a difference. Thought they (Hartford) got hot there, thought our defense in second half got stagnant. Unfortunetly for us that is still the biggest factor between us winning and losing games is the free throw line. I think we are starting to shoot the free throws better, but even this game there were clutch misses down the stretch”. Carroll led Hartford with 22 points and seven rebounds. Dunne had 20 points, including six of the 10 three pointers on the night for the Hawks. Lynch had 16, and George Blagojevic chipped in 14 points and eight rebounds.
Maine will welcome in Stony Brook to the CIC on Saturday at 1 pm for another America East showdown.
HAR 24 53- 77
UME 33 43- 76
FG % : Hartford 45.1 Maine 45.9
3 pt % : Hartford 33.3 Maine 43.5
Free throws : Hartford 10-16 Maine 21-28
Turnovers : Hartford 12 Maine 15
