Moses Flowers led three players in double figures with 15 points Saturday afternoon, as the Hartford Hawks defeated the Maine Black Bears 55-49 at Memorial Gym (The Pit) in Orono in men’s America East basketball action.
Maine (6-16, 2-6 America East) got off to a good start as Sergio El Darwich, who was thought to be lost for the season due to a broken finger returned to the lineup. Stephane Ingo scored underneath and El Darwich added a three point play to make it 10-3 Black Bears early. Hartford tied it on a shot from Romain Broxus with a little less than five minutes left in the first half, and took the lead 43 seconds later on a three-pointer from Miroslav Stafl to make it 21-18. The Hawks scored the final 13 points overall to take a 25-18 lead into the break.
Hartford (13-10, 6-2) built the lead to nine twice in the first five minutes of the second half before Maine rallied back. The Bears went on an 11-2 spurt over the next five minutes to tie it 33-33 on an Andrew Fleming layup with 9:41 to play. The Hawks though would go on a run themselves as they outscored Maine 14-2 over the next 5:26 to make it 47-35 with 4:15 remaining. The hosts did get it to six which was the final margin on free throws with the game already decided in the closing seconds.
El Darwich finished with 15 points in his return in the Maine loss, also adding six rebounds, two assists, and a steal. Precious Okoh had eight points. Ingo finished with seven points and seven rebounds. Fleming only had six points, but added 13 rebounds as well. Malik Ellison added 13 points in the Hartford win. Stafl finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. The Black Bears visit Vermont for a 5 p.m. tipoff with the Catamounts on Wednesday.
