The University of Maine basketball teams were both on the road again Sunday for non-conference matchups. The women’s team was finishing up play in the Gulf Coast Showcase in Florida against Dayton, while the men were in Connecticut to face the UConn Huskies.
At Hertz Arena in Eustero, Florida the Maine women’s team played in the final day of the Gulf Coast Showcase where they went 0-3 in the tournament as Erin Whalen had 19 points and the Dayton Flyers got off to a 20 point lead early en route to a 78-49 win over the Black Bears.
Maine (2-6) started off 2-14 from the floor as Dayton (4-5) led 25-5 after just a quarter of play. A Maeve Carroll jumper in the second quarter is as close as the Bears would come though the rest of the way making it 34-21. The Flyers later pushed the lead to as many as 30 in pulling away and sending Maine to their third straight loss.
Carroll had 14 points and six rebounds in the Black Bears loss. Dor Saar added 13 points. Maine shot 36% from the floor and only 4-9 from the foul line. Whalen added eight rebounds to go along with her game high point total for the Flyers. Julia Chandler also added 11 for Dayton who shot the ball at 55%, including 7-15 (46.7%) from the three-point line. Maine returns home to host in-state opponent Husson University Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
At the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut the Maine men’s team was able to stay with the UConn Huskies out of the American Athletic Conference for the first half before the hosts pulled away in the second 20 minutes for a 64-40 win.
UConn (5-2) led from start to finish scoring 11 of the first 13 points including a pair of three-pointers from Alterique Gilbert for an 11-2 advantage. Later a three-pointer and two from the line from Maines Andrew Fleming, and a short jumper from Stephane Ingo cut it to 13-12. The Bears never trailed by more than nine the remainder of the first half, trailing by seven at the break on a late layup by Nedeljko Prijovic that ended a four minute scoring drought for Maine.
A three point play by Fleming three minutes into the second half made it 35-30, but then the Huskies took control and ran away with it. A 17-2 spurt made it 52-32 and Maine (2-5) never got closer than 17 the rest of the way. The 24 point final margin was the largest lead of the day.
Fleming finished with 16 points and nine rebounds to lead the Black Bears. Four players scored in double figures to lead the Huskies to the win. James Bouknight had 15 points and five rebounds, while Gilbert had 13, Tyler Polly had 12, and Brendan Adams added 11 points. Maine will look to break a two game losing streak when they visit Northeastern to battle the Huskies Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
