The UMass-Lowell Riverhawks built a 13 point lead early in the second half, and then would hold off the pesky Maine Black Bears 72-70 in men’s America East basketball action at the Costello Athletic Center in Lowell, Massachusetts on Thursday night. It was the America East opener for Maine under new head coach Chris Markwood.
Maine held two early leads in the game at 2-0 and 4-2, and then later in the first half would go on a 7-0 run to take what turned out to be their largest lead of the night at 23-19 on a Kellen Tynes layup with 7:04 left. Connor Withers was scorching hot for UMass-Lowell in the first half with 15 points on 5-5 shooting from the three-point arc. He made three of those in last 3:49 to spur a 13-4 Riverhawks run to give them a 38-29 halftime advantage.
UMass-Lowell would build a pair of 13 point leads early in the second half, one on a three-pointer by Quinton Mincey three minutes in and then again on a pair of free throws from Ayinde Hikim 1:21 later. Maine began their comeback attempt at that point, scoring 20 of the next 28 points finished off by a Peter Filipovity steal and layup as they trimmed the deficit all the way down to 55-54 with 7:43 remaining. The Black Bears though were never able to get over the hump, but stayed within striking distance at two points on a three-pointer by Kristian Feierbergs with just under five minutes to play and again on two free throws by Gedi Juozapaitis with 23 seconds showing on the clock. The home Riverhawks sewed up the win when Hikim hit the first of two shots at the line, but on the missed second shot UML forward Everette Hammond grabbed the offensive rebound and got fouled and hit two free throws to put it out of reach with just five seconds left.
Juozapaitis led Maine in the loss with 18 points and four assists. Tynes had 12 points, four rebounds, and four assists. Jaden Clayton and Filipovity also got into double figures. Clayton scored 11 points, had four assists, and two steals and Filipovity recorded a double double with 10 points and 10 rebounds as the Black Bears lost their fourth consecutive game dropping to 6-8 overall and now 0-1 in the conference. Hammond had a game high 20 points to go along with seven rebounds in the win for UMass-Lowell. Hikim and Withers both added 15 points. Hikim had six assists and Withers hit 5-6 from the three-point line. The Riverhawks who were ranked #17 in the most recent mid-major poll improve to 14-2 and 2-0 in America East. UML is also unbeaten on their home floor so far on the season at 8-0. Maine returns to action on Sunday afternoon for their conference home opener at Memorial Gymnasium (The Pit) in Orono when they battle NJIT.
UME (6-8, 0-1) 29 41- 70
UML (14-2, 2-0) 38 34- 72
Rebounds- Maine 29, UML 35
Free throws- Maine 13-17, UML 17-24
Turnovers- Maine 12, UML 15
Three-point goals- Maine: Juozapaitis 2, Wright-McLeish 2, Tynes, Clayton, Feierbergs/UML: Withers 5, Mincey, Hammond
Recap written by Chris Lessner
