When Saturday started, University of Maine at Presque Isle men’s basketball player Jordan McLaughlin had 18 points in his college career.
In his team’s 121-61 home win over UM-Augusta, the freshman from Washburn hit 12 of his 15 field goal attempts, including going 8 of 10 from three-point land, to score 33 points in 16 minutes of action.
UMPI went ahead 12-2 in the game’s first three minutes and held a 38-12 10 minutes in and led 60-26 at halftime.
The second half belonged to McLaughlin and the Owls’ three-point shooters. With nine points at the break, the rookie guard hit six of his seven three-point attempts the rest of the way.
For the game, UMPI hit a school-record 21 three-pointers on 39 attempts. The hosts were solid from everywhere, shooting 58 percent overall from the floor, 54 percent on threes and 71 percent from the free throw line.
In addition to McLaughlin’s 33, Mike Warner followed up on his career-high 28 points on Friday with a 22-point performance against the Moose. Chase Vicaire finished with 22 off the bench and Aaron Hutchins also came off the pine to record 16 points.
Patrick Manifold and Claude Louis rounded out the list of double-figure scorers with 11 and 10, respectively.
In a game played Monday afternoon, Mike McCoy hit a jumper with 54 seconds remaining for the first lead of the second half to help Eastern Nazerene College sneak out of Wieden Gym with a 70-68 win over the Owls.
ENC is now 13-3 on the season after the non-conference road victory. UM-Presque Isle dropped to 8-10 after the heartbreaking loss.
Manifold scored all 18 of his team’s points during the first eight minutes of play and had 23 at intermission as the Owls held a 35-31 advantage. The lead ballooned to 11 with less than 10 minutes to go before the Lions went to work. ENC led by three with 10 second to go, with UMPI’s Jayson Burke grabbing a rebound on a missed three by Brad Trask and hitting the ensuing shot to draw the Owls within a point. However, they could get no closer.
Manifold finished with 33 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.
In Friday’s 93-70 loss at home to Daemen College of New York, Warner had a career-best 28 points, while Louis added 15.
The UMPI women avenged an early-season loss to UMA by winning at home Saturday, 66-55.
The Moose jumped out to a 9-1 lead and led 27-15 with two minutes left in the first half before the Owls began their comeback. Emily Pelletier each hit three-pointers to cut the lead to five at intermission.
Doni Yendriga had six points in UMPI’s 12-2 run to begin the second half as her team charged out in front. The Owls never trailed again.
Olivia McNally scored 17 points, while Pelletier had 13 and Kaplan and Amanda Hotham 12 each to lead UMPI’s offense.
The Owls fell at home to both Daemen College, the No. 1-ranked team in the USCAA, on Friday, 98-49, and to Eastern Nazarene Monday, 75-56. Hotham scored 15 points in her first career start against Daemen, while Taylor Cochran tallied 13 in the loss to ENC. UMPI is now 5-11 on the season.
Both teams resume their regular season schedules with home contests against SUNY-Canton Saturday afternoon. The women’s game begins at noon and the men have a scheduled 2 p.m. tipoff.
