Sergio El Darwich scored a career high 36 points on Wednesday night, to lead the Maine Black Bears to a 104-98 overtime win over the UMass-Lowell Riverhawks at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Neither team led by more than four points for a majority of the first half. With UMass-Lowell leading 42-39 with 2:59 left, Maine would end the first half on a 10-1 run to take a 49-43 lead at halftime. The Riverhawks took the lead back when Christian Lutete knocked in a three-pointer with 13:14 left to play. Precious Okoh regained the lead for the Black Bears about four minutes later when he hit in a three on a fastbreak, but then back to back three-pointers by Obadiah Noel gave UML their largest lead of the game at 71-66. There was no quit in the hosts though as Andrew Fleming tied it with a three with 1:54 left. Then after Noel hit a jumper in the paint to give the visitors a two point advantage, El Darwich nailed a three-pointer to make it 84-83 Black Bears with 1:11 remaining. Noel tied it 86-86 with a three point play with 25 seconds showing on the clock. Maine had a chance to win it in regulation, but El Darwich and Fleming missed layups in the final seconds.
In the extra session, the Riverhawks took a 91-88 lead before Okoh scored in the paint and then El Darwich scored five straight points. Maine put it away on another layup by Okoh, a 1-2 effort from the line by Peter Stumer, and then hitting all six free throw attempts in the last 27 seconds to help end a three game losing streak.
El Darwich fell one rebound short of a triple double, adding nine rebounds and 10 assists to his game high point total in the Maine win. Fleming and Okoh both had 14 points a piece, while Vilgot Larsson also got into double digit scoring with 12. The Bears improve to 5-13, 1-3 America East. Lutete had 29 points and nine rebounds in the loss for UMass-Lowell. Noel had 26. Connor Withers 13, Josh Gantz 12, and Ron Mitchell 11 points rounded out the double digit scorers for the Riverhawks who drop to 8-11, 2-2. Maine will host Binghamton on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.
