FARMINGTON – Never in the University of Maine at Farmington’s known men’s basketball history have the Beavers defeated in-state rivals Colby College, Bates College, and Bowdoin College in the same season.
Heck, it had been 13 years and 15 games since UMF had even beaten Bowdoin.
Both those streaks ended Tuesday night as the Beavers came back from a 13-point second half deficit to post a 66-62 win over the visiting Polar Bears at UMF’s Dearborn Gym. The win was UMaine-Farmington’s (11-3) first over Bowdoin (9-4) since February 15, 2000, when UMF notched a 75-68 victory in a game played in Brunswick.
Junior center Ben Johnson (Manchester, Maine/Maranacook) paced all scorers with 19 points, and he completed his eighth double-double of the season with 10 rebounds – seven of them on the offensive glass.
Junior Nate Carson (Orrington, Maine/Brewer) added 12 points including a pair of 3-pointers, while junior Andrew Dickey (Cape Elizabeth, Maine/Cape Elizabeth) added 11 points and two more treys. Junior guard Yusuf Iman (Auburn, Maine/Edward Little) tallied eight points, and dished out seven assists against just four turnovers.
Keegan Pieri (Camden, Maine/Camden Hills) led Bowdoin with 15 points and six rebounds, while Andrew Madlinger (Basking Ridge, N.J.) chipped in with 14 points. Lucas Hausman (Westport, Conn.) tallied 13 points and six boards, while Bryan Hurley (Watertown, Mass.) handed out eight assists to go with this seven points.
Junior Andrew Dickey’s (Cape Elizabeth, Maine/Cape Elizabeth) 3-point jumper with 1:06 remaining gave UMaine-Farmington a 64-62 advantage, the Beavers’ first lead since the game’s opening minutes.
Hurley’s attempt at a game-tying jumper for Bowdoin and a Pieri 3-point shot both missed the mark, but a foul by UMF’s Johnson sent Hausman to the line for two shots with 10 seconds remaining.
Hausman missed both shots, and Johnson was fouled while trying for the rebound. He hit both ends of the one-and-one at the other end of the floor, extending UMaine-Farmington’s lead to 66-62 and virtually securing the win.
Bowdoin held a six-point lead, 30-24, at the intermission, after shooting 50.0 percent in the first half to UMaine-Farmington’s 28.1 percent. The Polar Bears’ lead quickly grew to 13 points, 42-29, with 16:35 remaining in the second half, and Bowdoin still had a 12-point lead as late as the 13:20 mark of the frame.
UMaine-Farmington answered with an 11-0 run to pull to within one point of Bowdoin, 49-48, with 7:43 showing, and finally caught the Polar Bears just over two minutes later on a layup by Farmington’s Uriah Forest-Bulley (Turner Falls, Mass./Turner Falls) to tie the game at 53-53.
A four-point play – a 3-pointer and a foul shot – by Hausman and a Pieri trey quickly gave Bowdoin a seven-point lead. UMF outscored the Polar Bears 8-2 over the next two minutes, including 3-pointers by Carson and Dickey, to pull within one point of Bowdoin with two minutes remaining to set the stage for Dickey’s second trey of the night to give UMaine-Farmington the lead.
UMaine-Farmington shot 39.1 percent (25-of-64) from the floor to Bowdoin’s 42.6 percent (23-of-54), and each team finished with eight 3-pointers and eight made free throws. The difference was on the glass, where UMaine-Farmington outrebounded Bowdoin, 41-35. The Beavers’ logged 17 offensive rebounds to the Polar Bears’ nine, and UMF finished with a 15-5 advantage in second-chance points.
UMaine-Farmington returns to North Atlantic Conference play on Thursday, Jan. 17, when it hosts Husson University in a 7:30 p.m. tip-off. Bowdoin returns to the hardwood on Friday, Jan. 18, when it travels to No. 16 Amherst College.
Go UMF!!! Great job!