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BIDDEFORD, Maine -- The University of Southern Maine began the second frame with a 32-11 run to erase a nine-point halftime deficit, on the way to a 70-58 non-conference men's basketball victory over the University of New England on Tuesday evening (Nov. 19) at the Harold Alfond Forum.

With their second win in-a-row, the Huskies improve to 2-1 on the young season. The Nor'easters fall back to 0-3.

Senior Conor Sullivan paced USM with 19 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore Cole Libby added 17 points -- nine of which came in the final two minutes after UNE pulled back within four (60-56) -- and had seven boards. Junior Tyler Penney totaled 11 points and six caroms, while classmate James Odneal grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. First-year Zach Leal tossed in nine points to support the offensive cause.

For Big Blue, sophomore Devin Thompson led the way with 18 points in his first action of the year. First-year Brayden Morse posted a double-double with 12 points and a game-high 14 boards. Senior Joshua Butler contributed eight points, as did classmate Kurt Steiner and sophomore William Abdul-Malak. Butler also collected 10 rebounds.

The Nor'easters held USM to 30 percent shooting (9 for 30) from the floor in the 1st half and knocked down six treys of their own to establish a 34-25 cushion at the break. Following a layup by Leal just past the midway point of the stanza to give the Huskies a 20-19 edge, UNE finished the period with a 15-5 stretch that featured two three-pointers from Steiner.

After the margin touched 10 (37-27) just moments into the final frame on a long distance connection by Thompson, the Huskies started to chip away at the UNE advantage. Sullivan scored eight in the initial portion of the run to get USM a lead it would not relinquish (44-43) with 14:36 remaining.

A Sullivan free throw at the 6:20 mark made the difference nine (57-48) in favor of the visitors, but a quick triple from Abdul-Malak and a jumper by Thompson brought UNE back within four. Moments later Abdul-Malak answered a three-pointer by Leal with one more of his own, but that was as close as the Nor'easters would get.

Southern Maine overcame its poor shooting early on by hitting on 57 percent (16 for 31) of its field goal tries after intermission. Meanwhile, the hosts closed with 27 percent accuracy (9 of 33) from the floor in the last 20 minutes.

The Huskies are slated to play their first home contest of the season on Saturday against Keene State College (3 p.m.) to open up Little East Conference (LEC) play.

Big Blue wraps up its four-game homestand the same day (3 p.m.) against Bates College.


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