BANGOR- Maks Klanjscek and Vukasin Masic each scored 25 points and combined to hit 10 three-pointers Monday night, as the Maine Black Bears broke a seven game losing streak with a 71-64 victory over the University of New Hampshire in America East men’s basketball action at the Cross Insurance Center. The win also snaps a 15 game losing streak against Division I opponents dating back to the 2020 season (0-13 this season entering Monday).
UNH had their only lead of the night early on at 7-2, before a 14-2 Maine spurt put them up for good 16-9 capped off by a Masic three-pointer and two in a row from behind the arc from Ja’Shon Wright-McLeish. The Black Bears led by as many as 10 over the first 20 minutes and 32-23 at the halftime break.
Maine (4-13, 1-5 America East) extended that advantage to 11 on another Masic three-pointer 2:42 into the second half, before UNH responded with three-pointers by Nick Johnson, Marco Foster, and Blondeau Tchoukuiegno to slice it to 38-36 just over two minutes later. It looked like the Black Bears would pull away though as they went on a 16-0 run that included more long range shooting from behind the arc by Masic, two from Klanjscek, and one from Wright-McLeish making it 54-36 with 11:10 left to play. The Wildcats did slice it to eight on a couple of occasions with less than three minutes to go but a Masic layup and 6-6 free throw shooting by Maine in the final minute iced the win, a little more than 48 hours later after a 42 point home loss to UMBC on Saturday. The last time before Monday that the Bears were winners over a D1 opponent was January 10, 2021 against NJIT.
Klanjscek and Masic combined to shoot 19-31 from the floor in the win. Klanjscek was 5-6 from three-point range, while Masic was 5-9. Wright-McLeish was the only other Maine player with double digits scoring 13 on the night. As a team they went 14-28 from the arc. Nick Guadarrama had 20 points and five rebounds in the loss for New Hampshire, while Foster finished with 17 points and seven rebounds. The Wildcats fall to 7-7, 2-3 in conference play. Maine and UNH square off again in Durham on Wednesday night at 7 p.m., part of a women’s/men’s doubleheader between the two schools.
The University of Maine men’s basketball team snapped a seven game losing streak, and a 15 game losing streak against Division I teams on Monday night with a 71-64 America East victory over UNH at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. Photos courtesy of Chris Lessner
