Stephane Ingo scored 16 points on Saturday afternoon, as the Maine Black Bears knocked off the New Hampshire Wildcats 59-56 at Memorial Gymnasium in Orono in America East men’s basketball action.
The win is the first for Maine (1-3, 1-2 America East) in the new season, playing in the first basketball game in the state since March. The Bears were in control early taking a 12-5 lead on a three-pointer by Ata Turgut just over five minutes into the game. UNH picked up momentum and went up as many as six, and held a 30-26 halftime lead. After the visiting Wildcats went up nine early in the second half, the Black Bears took the momentum back in their favor. A Mykhalio Yagodin jumper made it 44-43 Maine with 12:12 left. A driving layup by Vilgot Larsson gave them their biggest lead of the second half at 57-51 with 2:53 to play. With the score still the same, K.J. McLurg was fouled on a three-point attempt with 28 seconds left and made all three to cut it to 57-54. Maine then turned the ball over, and McLurg was fouled and made two more to slice it to one. Yagodin would make two on the other end, and a last second three to send it to overtime by Marque Maultsby fell short as time expired.
Ingo had a double double adding 10 rebounds in the win for Maine. Larsson added 12 points, while Yagodin was big off the bench especially in the second half chipping in nine points. Maultsby was the only player in double digits in the loss for UNH with 17 points, as the Wildcats dip to 3-3 overall and 2-1 in America East. The teams play game two of the conference series on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
