Kyree Brown had a game high 22 points on Wednesday night, in leading the University of New Hampshire Wildcats to a 71-58 victory over the Maine Black Bears in America East men’s basketball action at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. The loss sends Maine to their sixth consecutive defeat, and keeps them winless so far early in the conference season.
The first half saw six lead changes, as the teams jockeyed back and forth for a good portion of the opening 20 minutes. Over the first 16:37, the Wildcats and Black Bears both led by as many as four points. Maine had taken a 30-26 advantage on a Kellen Tynes layup with 3:23 left. That is when the guests caught fire from deep heading into the break. Brown hit a trio of three-pointers, wedged around one from the arc by Jaxson Baker to help spur a 12-0 run and UNH went into the locker room up 38-30.
The Wildcats started the second half on a 15-4 run (27-4 overall) and would build their lead to 53-34 with 12:44 remaining on a Brown layup. The Black Bears made a run of their own to cut into the deficit. Maine outscored UNH 12-2 over the next 3:35 capped off by a three-point play by Gedi Juozapaitis to make it 55-46. The ‘Cats regained control and pushed it back to 16 points at 63-47 when Baker knocked down another three-pointer with 7:18 left. Maine would make one more run at it with yet another scoring spurt by a count of 11-1 this time over a span of 4:13, finished off by a three-pointer from the corner by Jaden Clayton to trim it to 64-58 with 3:05 to play. The Wildcats though held the Black Bears scoreless over the last 3:05, getting a layup by Nick Johnson and five points from the line to ice the victory and improve their conference record to 3-1.
Juozapaitis led Maine in the loss with 19 points, four rebounds, and three assists. Tynes was the only other double digit scorer for the Black Bears with 13 points and five rebounds. Brown added six rebounds and five assists to his point total in the win for UNH, that also included 4 three-pointers. Baker also buried four from the arc and finished with 15 points, while Johnson had a double double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. They hit 12 three-pointers on the night, compared to just six for Maine and also won the rebounding battle 37-30. The Wildcats improve to 8-8, 3-1 in America East. Maine is now 6-10, 0-3 in conference play and head out on the road to take on UMBC on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
Recap by Chris Lessner
Box Score-
UNH (8-8, 3-1) 38 33- 71
UME (6-10, 0-3) 30 28- 58
Rebounds- UNH 37, Maine 30
Free throws- UNH 15-22, Maine 10-13
Turnovers- UNH 14, Maine 11
Bench scoring- UNH 28, Maine 7
Three-point goals- UNH: Brown 4, Baker 4, Derry 2, Woodyard, Herasme/ Maine: Juozapaitis 2, Wright-McLeish 2, Clayton, Adetogun
