FARMINGTON, Maine – The Colby-Sawyer College men's basketball team got plenty of chances at the free-throw line and made the best of them, going 26-of-34 at the stripe to help secure a 73-67 North Atlantic Conference win over the University of Maine at Farmington, Saturday afternoon at Dearborn Gym.

Colby-Sawyer improved to 10-8 overall and 9-3 in the NAC with the win, which also keeps the Chargers in third place in the league standings ahead of a rapidly surging Thomas College squad that went undefeated on the weekend.

UMaine-Farmington dropped to 6-6 in conference play, 8-10 overall, and missed a chance to complete a weekend sweep of conference play.

Four Colby-Sawyer players finished in double-digits, led by Zach Bean with 17 points. Peter Donato charted 14 points and a team-best six rebounds, while Koang Thok and Wol Majong each tallied 11 points.

Senior Andrew Dickey continued his torrid scoring pace of late for UMaine-Farmington, posting numbers of 25 points and eight rebounds. Senior Ben Johnson finished the day with 14 points and eight boards, while senior Garrett Clemmer, who missed Friday night's game after battling illness earlier in the week, tallied 15 points off the bench.

Colby-Sawyer connected on 26 free throws, second-most in a game this season, out of 34 attempts for a .765 free-throw percentage – also its second-best shooting percentage at the line this season.

The bulk of those foul shots came in the second half, when the Chargers went 21-of-27 at the stripe, including a 12-of-14 mark over the final four minutes when the Beavers made their best comeback bid.

Trailing 58-45 with 6:37 to play, Clemmer drained a 3-pointer to start Farmington's run. Clemmer added two more treys later in the span, as did junior Pet Sumner. That left the Beavers down by just four, 63-59, with 1:54 showing on the game clock.

Bean eventually missed the first of two foul shots with 50 seconds remaining, and a Johnson layup with an 'and one' at the other end of the floor finally brought UMaine-Farmington to within one possession of Colby-Sawyer at 66-63, with a chance to cut the lead to two points.

Johnson missed his free throw, allowing the Chargers to maintain their three-point lead, and the Beavers were forcing to begin fouling.

Colby-Sawyer made 7-of-8 at the line in the final 36 seconds, while Farmington answered with two-point buckets by senior Sam Leal and Dickey. A pair of 3-point shots by Clemmer in the waning 20 seconds that would have put the Beavers within striking range were both wide of the mark.

UMaine-Farmington completes its non-conference slate for the season on Tuesday, Feb. 4, when it hosts Bates College at 7:00 p.m. at Dearborn Gym. Colby-Sawyer is idle until Friday, Feb. 7, when it hosts Maine Maritime Academy at 7:30 p.m. in New London, N.H.

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