UMPI Owls busy on basketball court
The UMPI men’s basketball team improved to 7-3 on the season by shaking off a home loss to UM-Fort Kent Thursday and winning back-to-back games on Sunday and Monday. Meanwhile, the Owl women split their two contests, topping Fisher College Sunday before being stopped by UM-Augusta Monday. They are now 2-3 on the campaign.
The Owl squads will next travel to Thomas College on Saturday, Dec. 13. The men’s game will start at 3 p.m., preceded by a UMPI-Thomas women’s matchup beginning at 1 p.m.
On Thursday at Wieden Gymnasium, the visiting Bengals established an inside-out presence throughout the contest and were able to control the Owls for the majority of the contest, coming out with a 67-47 win to hand the Owls their first home loss of the season.
The teams traded baskets in the early going, with the Bengals riding three three-point goals from Jorge Matesanz and UMPI counter-punching with inside baskets by freshmen Maurice Harris and Kevin Collins. An initial shift in momentum came when UMFK went to a 1-3-1 zone and took advantage of cold Owls’ shooting from the perimeter. The Bengals enjoyed a 31-23 halftime lead.
Despite turning the ball over only three times in the first half, the first three possessions began the demise for the Owls, with consecutive turnovers and two that led to points in transition for the Bengals. Facing a double-digit deficit, the home team was able to fight back riding the hot shooting of sophomore Nick Lenhard.
The Bengals stemmed the tide, however, and key baskets from Joe McCloskey and Jake Rioux bulged the Fort Kent advantage back into double figures. The Owls finished at 25 percent from the floor for the night. Junior Chase Vicaire scored a team-high 10 points and he and freshman Trevor Lovely grabbed six and five rebounds, respectively.
On Sunday in a home game against Fisher College, the Owls didn’t lead for long, but led when it mattered most in notching a thrilling 61-60 victory.
The teams traded punches back and forth early in the contest — Fisher paced by Jameel Yousif and the Owls getting early scoring from Vicaire and rebounding from sophomore Brandon McGill. Fisher gained control of the first half with big threes from Ira Haywood, but UMPI was able to hang around with contributions from Harris and freshman Trevor Lovely off the bench. The Falcons led at intermission, 31-25.
Both teams came out cold to begin the second half, but the Owls were able to creep closer in the first 10 minutes with big finishes from Harris and Vicaire. Fisher remained in the lead even late into the contest, but the Owls made some furious runs, including Collins hitting a three with two seconds on the shot clock and then converting an old-fashion three-point play in the next possession.
Late in the game, UMPI still trailed by two, 60-58, when Vicaire made a three with 13 seconds on the clock to give the Owls the 61-60 advantage. The Owls forced a miss in the final possession for the Falcons, who also missed a tip opportunity. Sophomore Jordan Cook snatched the rebound with two seconds remaining. After missing his first free throw, he missed the second intentionally. Fisher called a timeout and tried a desperate runner at the buzzer, but the shot went behind the glass to allow the Owls to come out on top.
Vicaire and Harris were the top scorers with 13 points each, with Harris grabbing seven rebounds. Collins netted 12 points and McGill had a team-best nine boards.
On Monday, the Owls got strong play from their entire team to take an 80-67 road victory at UM-Augusta.
Tied at 27 at the end of the first half, the Owl attack started to hit on all cylinders in the second stanza, connecting on 60 percent of their shots. McGill (5 for 5) and Collins (3 for 3) were perfect from the field in the second half, each scoring 11 points to vault UMPI to another win.
Vicaire led the Owls, knocking down four of his eight three-pointers to register 20 points for the game. Freshman Collins added 16 and sophomore McGill added 15 and seven rebounds. Maurice Harris grabbed nine rebounds and Vicaire helped the cause with eight boards. Sophomore point man Nick Lenhard scored nine, had three rebounds and handed out five assists on the night.
“We played well and beat a very good Fisher team Sunday, it would have been natural to expect a letdown on the road today,” noted head coach Mike Holmes. “But for a very young team, I believe some ideas clicked in our heads and we now see how our deliberate style of play can help us play good basketball.”
Brandon Rogers was high man for the Moose, scoring 22 points and adding 12 rebounds.
The Owl fans are starting to see the results of the strong start with several Owls ranking among the leaders in the Association of Division III Independents.
McGill, Harris and Vicaire are all currently ranking in the AD3I top 10 in rebounding. Vicaire is leading the association in three-point field goal percentage at 50.8, while he and teammate McGill are also top five in total field goal percentage. Collins and Lenhard are ranked seventh and eighth, respectively, in assists per game. Freshman Sam Smith ranks third in three-point field goal percentage, hitting on 44 percent of his attempts.
Owl women’s split pair on the road
Despite being down eight points at halftime, the UMPI women’s basketball team came away with a road victory Sunday over Fisher College, 64-56.
The Owls showed exceptional intestinal fortitude, not only outscoring the host Falcons, 41-25, in the second half, but doing it despite being outrebounded 61-46 for the game and also only making three of nine foul shots in the last two minutes of the game.
“It was something very special to watch our team come together after Darby (Toth) took over the game when we most needed an offensive spark,” noted Owl head coach Doug Carter. “I’m just so impressed with the heart and fight of this group … it’s not normal to go up against such bigger and stronger athletes, be outrebounded, yet work so hard to take a win away from a very well-coached team on the road.”
Toth spearheaded the comeback, scoring 18 of her game-high 28 points in the second half. Washburn product Rebecca Campbell registered her third double-double for the Owls, scoring 15 points and securing a game-high 13 rebounds. Sophomore Sydney Churchill had six points, none bigger than a three-pointer with just under 30 seconds left in the game to cement the victory. Toth also had seven steals and four assists, Campbell had four assists and Churchill added six boards.
The Owl women could not overcome the rebounding advantage the home standing UM-Augusta Moose worked to achieve, losing 80-57 Monday evening.
The Moose grabbed 25 offensive rebounds to the Owls’ four and scored 27 second-chance points off those caroms to secure the victory.
“We did not play well, coming back from a draining comeback win the day before in Boston,” said Carter. “That said, nearly every statistical category was even — shooting, steals, turnovers and points off those turnovers — everything except our inability to secure the misses we work so hard to create and those killer second and third point-blank shots.”
Toth had her second outstanding game in two days, leading the Owls with 21 points and four assists and Churchill dropped 15 points, including three long-range bombs from downtown. Churchill added six boards and Campbell garnered her third straight double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
UMA, now 7-4, was led by Jamie Plummer with 23 points, while Washburn native Carmen Bragg had 21 points and a career-high 10 rebounds.
