Me Men hold on to beat Binghamton in OT 81-79

[bcbc55]

The Maine men's basketball team hung on in overtime to beat the last place Binghamton Bearcats 81-79 to keep from falling into a last place tie with the Bearcats. at the CIC in Bangor.

Maine was called for a 5 second violation on a throw in in backcourt on the endline with 10.9 seconds left in overtime allowing the Binghamton team to get off a potential wining three which was missed and followed by a 2 point tip in to tie the game which was also missed.

Maine lead at half time 30-28 and lead for most of the entire game and lead by as many as 10 points late in the second half but Bing made a strong rally to force the game into overtime.

The biggest difference in the game was that the NYers took 40 3 point attempts out of their 71 FGA's and only made 13 compared to Maine who only took 19 3 attempts but made 10.

Bing shot 32,5% for threes but took 56.4% of their FGA's on 40 3 attempts of 71 FGA's. Maine took only 33.3% of their FGA's as threes on 19 of 57 and shot an outstanding 52.6% for 3's.

Maine's point guard Celio Araujo who had not scored in regulation time, hit a big three to tie the game at 72-72 early in the overtime after Bing had hit a three to go up 72-69 and then made 4 foul shots to score 7 of the Maine 12 points in the overtime.

Maine had an excellent shooting day from the floor as they shot 50.9% from the floor on 29 of 57 and hit 10-19 for 3's for 52.6% and Bing went 29-71 for 40.8%.

From struggled from the line Maine going 13 for 21 for 61.9% and Bing 8-12 for 66.7%

Maine had 35 rebounds Bing had 40

Assist Maine 16 Bing 12

Turnovers 14 Maine Bing 15

Points in paint 24 each team

2nd chance points Bing 21 Maine 3

Personal fouls Maine 17 Bing 15

Isaiah White had a career high 23 points with 5-8 from beyond the arc. Andrew Fleming had 16 and Calixe was held to 11.

For Bing. Show had 20, Bruce 18 and Muhammad with 17.

Maine is tied for 7th-8th place place at 3-7 with Stonybrook. Maine goes to 4-19 versus D-1 opponents.

Binghamton drops to 1-9 in last place in the AE Conference standings.

Maine's next game is Thursday @ UNH at 7:00pm a team that MAINE beat in Bangor, January 24th 69-68.

[augie]

Cim, are you happier when Maine men’s basketball wins or loses? Please answer “when they win” or “when they lose”.

Thanks in advance.

[bcbc55]

Cim, are you happier when Maine men’s basketball wins or loses? Please answer “when they win” or “when they lose”.

Thanks in advance.

augie: Good question! As a Mainer I am happier "When they win".
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NO NEED TO READ THIS BELOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TOO,
AS I WILL UNDERSTAND AS YOU DIDN'T ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE THEN THAT ONE QUESTION WHICH I ANSWERED ABOVE.
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Which means have only been happy 16 times in 3 plus years against D-1 competition. Can't count those 8 weak non D-1 wins.

As a basketball person I am unhappy when they lose (most of the time the past 3 plus years 93 times vs. D-1 opponents.)

I get tired of seeing them do the same things over and over and over again expecting different results and OF only having one former Maine high school player on the roster as a scholarship player and having O Mainer as an assistant coach. Hard as a tax payer of Maine (which Maine is a state land grant public educational institution) to really and truly root for a team made up of 92.3% (12 of 13) of non-Mainers as scholarship players and O% assistant coaches.

Hard to relate or get really interested. Only watch games online, certainly wouldn't pay to see them play.

Here's a plus though.

They have cut down on their number of 3 attempts. They were averaging 25 attempts a game in the first 21 games of the season to below 20 the last four games against UNH win 19, UMBC 16 loss UMass-Lowell loss 19 and Binghamton 19 win.

They are 2-2 since they reduced the 3 attempts.

First 21 games they took over 40% of their FGA's as 3's last 4 games only 32.4%. Shot 29'1% for threes in first 21 games shot 34.0% for 3's last 4 games. Definite improvement.

Now if they would only play 7 players double figure minutes it would help as much as reducing the 3's, but they haven't figured that out yet. Played there best ball in conference play when they only used 6 players for a full game in the UNH win and 7 players in the first half of the UMBC.

Then in the second half of the UMBC game went back to the old "Supervisor of Substitutions" using 10 players double figure minutes instead of trying to coach and also for the UMass-Lowell and Binghamton games.

Sorry for the lengthy response other than the answer to the question you asked me, but you were warned you didn't have to read this.

P.S. If Maine has to lose why don't they do it with former Maine high school players? 2 a year 8 on roster and 3 non Mainers to fill the needs that the Maine players do not do, usually BIGS. Keep 2 scholarships in reserve.
Have on campus tryouts to fill out roster of which would be 3 for a roster of 8 Mainers, 3 non-Mainers and 3 campus walk ons.

When I get going I just can't stop. Must be my old senior citizen age and nothing else much to do in the winter except plow my yard. Too much time on my hands I guess.