Justin Neely had a game-high 29 points, and the Albany Great Danes used an 18-6 second half run to take the lead for good on Thursday night culminating in a 69-58 come from behind America East men’s basketball victory over the Maine Black Bears at the Broadview Center in Albany, New York.
Maine started strong in trying to pick up their fourth road conference win of the season, as they led by as many as 11 in the first half at 22-11 on a three-pointer by Christopher Mantis. Albany rallied to take back a three-point lead, before three layups by the Black Bears from Killian Gribben, AJ Lopez, and Jaden Clayton over the final 2:31 had the guests up at the break 31-28 (6-0 run). They would go up by nine early in the second half on a three-pointer by Quion Burns at 41-32 with 17:42 left to play. Trailing 45-40, the Great Danes went on their spurt of 18-6 over a span 5:43 capped off with a dunk by Demarr Langford Jr. to jump ahead for good 58-51 with 8:40 remaining. Maine sliced their deficit to one point on four different occasions, with the last coming on a dunk by Gribben with 3:06 to go. Albany iced the victory down the stretch, scoring the final six points of the game from the foul line in the last 51 seconds (6-6).
AJ Lopez led four players in double figures in the Maine loss with 17 points, two assists, and two steals. Mantis finished with 13 points (3-7 three-pointers), while Burns and Clayton contributed 10 points each. Burns added six rebounds, while Clayton dished out seven assists. The Black Bears shot the ball well (50.9%), but turned it over 16 times and was outscored 25-10 in points off those miscues by the hosts. Neely was 11-16 from the floor, also adding 11 rebounds and three assists to his game-high point total in the win for Albany. Amar’e Marshall contributed 18 points, six rebounds, and four assists. Byron Joshua also got into double figures with 12 points, five rebounds, and four assists. The Great Danes are now 14-13 and 6-6 in America East and have won their of their last four games. Maine drops to 16-11 and 8-4 in conference play with their second straight defeat, and will try to get back on track when they visit Binghamton on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
