The University of Maine men’s and women’s basketball teams both played non-conference games on Saturday afternoon. The women hosted Drexel out of the CAA in Bangor, while the men went on the road to take on Columbia out of the Ivy League.
At the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, the women’s team shot just 24% from the floor as Drexel sent the Bears to their third straight loss 57-33.
Maine never led in the game, and Drexel had a 15-9 advantage after one quarter. The Dragons opened it up in the second outscoring the Black Bears 19-6 for a 34-15 lead at the halftime break helped by 17 points from Keishana Washington. The guests would cruise in the second half and would build as much as a 25 point bulge in improving their record to 6-2. Anne Simon led Maine (2-6) with 10 points and seven rebounds, while Maeve Carroll added eight points and 12 rebounds. Adrianna Smith chipped in six points and five rebounds, and Alba Orois contributed five points. The Black Bears shot just 1-21 from the three-point arc. Washington finished with 25 points for Drexel, and Tessa Brugler added 16 points and eight rebounds. Maine will take on Rhode Island out of the Atlantic 10 next Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Augusta Civic Center.
At Levien Gym in New York, Columbia built a 14 point halftime lead and cruised to a 77-66 win over the Maine men.
The Black Bears (2-5) never led and the Lions would start pulling away in the last 7:10 of the first half, ending the opening 20 minutes on a 16-5 run to make it 39-25 at the break. Columbia (3-6) would go up as many as 20 early in the second half, but the guests did make a run to cut it to three on several occasions including the last time on two free throws with 9:49 left. The Lions would push it back to 12 with 5:12 remaining, and Maine never got closer than six the rest of the way. Vukasin Masic had 15 points and six rebounds in the loss, Maks Klanjscek had 11 points, and LeChaun DuHart had 10 points and six rebounds. Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa led Columbia with a game high 24 points, Patrick Harding had 15 points and 17 rebounds, and Liam Murphy chipped in 12 points. Maine is at Quinnipiac next Saturday afternoon for a 2 p.m. tip with the Bobcats.
