Box Score BOSTON – Senior James Odneal (Pontiac, Mich.) converted a layup with four seconds remaining in regulation to help the University of Southern Maine Huskies escape with a 65-63 win over the UMass Boston Beacons in a Little East Conference men's basketball game Tuesday night at the Clark Athletic Center.
With the win, Southern Maine improves to 7-17 overall and 3-10 in the Little East. With the loss, UMass Boston falls to 6-18 overall and 0-13 in the conference.
Despite holding a 21-point (48-27) lead early in the second half, the Huskies found themselves trailing the Beacons 61-60 with 3:18 to play. The Huskies grabbed their largest lead of the game at the 16:59 mark of the second stanza after sophomore Cole Libby (Buxton, Maine/Bonny Eagle) drained one of his two three-pointers in the game, UMass Boston mounted a furious comeback. The Beacons outscored the Huskies 34-12 over the next 13 minutes paced by 11 points from junior Carl Joseph (Brockton, Mass.) and nine points from freshman Nick Guerriero (Naples, Fla.). Guerriero hit back-to-back threes to sandwich a layup from USM sophomore Sean Caddigan (Bethel, Maine/Telstar) before Joseph scored four straight points to have the Beacons trailing USM 60-59 with 3:51 to play. The Beacons took their first lead of the the game since early in the opening half when Gregory Young grabbed an offensive board off of his own miss and converted the layup for a 61-60 lead.
The Huskies' pulled even with UMB in their next possession as senior Tyler Penney (Barnstead, N.H./Bishop Brady) grabbed an offensive board and made one of two free throws. After a Beacons missed was cleared off the boards by Odneal, Penney put the Huskies' ahead 63-61 with a short jumper on a feed from Caddigan with 1:36 to play.
On the Beacons next possession sophomore Selim Omerovic (Saugus, Mass.) made the best of his opportunity at the free throw line sinking two with 1:07 to play to bring the game even at 63 all. A Huskies' turnover returned the ball to the Beacons, but Caddigan cleared the defensive glass with less than 30 seconds to go before Odneal converted the game-winner.
Senior Conor Sullivan (Scarborough, Maine) led the Huskies with 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting. He added five rebounds and five assists. Penney posted a double-double with 13 points and a team-high 10 rebounds, while Libby finished with 12 points.
Joseph paced the Beacons with 21 points and 13 rebounds, both game-high totals. Junior Luc Ulysse (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bronx Regional) added 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting. Freshman Tyquan Ekejluba (Randolph, Mass./Hyde School (Conn.)) had nine assists.
Southern Maine hosts Eastern Connecticut on Saturday (3:00 p.m.) in its regular season finale. It will be Senior Day for the Huskies, who will honor seniors Sullivan, Penney, Odneal and Lincoln Dresser (Rockland, Maine). UMass Boston travels to Western Connecticut on Saturday (3:00 p.m.).
–cac–
