WATERVILLE, Maine - The University of Maine at Farmington men's basketball team won a hard fought seesaw battle on Sunday afternoon against Norwich University on day two of the Charlie Ryan Classic hosted by Thomas College. The Beavers needed overtime, but topped the Cadets, 81-80 to improve to 3-0 after the first week of the regular season.
The Beavers jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead in the opening minutes behind back to back threes from Simon Chadbourne (Portland, Maine) and Will Harriman (Biddeford, Maine). But the Cadets responded with a 10-1 spurt of their own behind threes from Donato Pakak and Joe Joe Dubrul to take a 10-7 lead and begin the back and forth battle.
The game saw ten tied and 24 lead changes. After falling behind 10-7, the Beavers quickly answered with a 7-0 run to retake a four-point lead. Norwich quickly responded and took a 17-16 lead with just under eight minutes to play in the half. Once again Farmington responded, this time with a 9-0 run behind five points from Harriman to grab a seven-point lead.
A Dylan Griffin (Saco, Maine) layup with 1:38 to play in the half extended the Beavers' lead to nine. But three pointers from Kohlby Murray and Charles Nogard brought the Cadets within five heading into halftime.
The Cadets continued to chip away at the Beavers lead in the second half as the five-point lead to start the half was the biggest lead that either team had.
Another Griffin layup (Saco, Maine) with just under four minutes to play in the second half gave the Beavers a 65-61 lead. The Cadets answered once again with a quick 6-0 run to grab a two-point lead with just 2:30 left to play. The Beavers got a big defensive stop after a Chadbourne missed jumper in the lane to get the ball back with another chance to tie with under two minutes to play. A layup from Griffin knotted the game up at 67 with 1:38 left to play.
The Cadets got a layup from Owen Liss with under 80 seconds to play to regain a two-point lead. After the teams traded defensive stops, Zachary Mickle (Billerica, Mass.) got into the lane and tied the game up with a layup with 11 seconds left after a beautifully executed out of bounds play to force overtime.
The Beavers jumped out to a quick five-point lead in overtime behind a three from Chadbourne, and a jumper in the lane from Mickle. After a pair of free throws from Jalen Olivero, Jordan Anthony (Farmington, Conn.) hit a massive three to extend the Beavers lead to six. But free throws from Dubrul and a three from Liss pulled the Cadets back within a point with 1:15 left.
After Mickle hit one of his two free throws with a minute to play, Olivero made a layup to tie the game up at 78.
On the ensuing Beaver possession, Mickle got into the lane once again and hit an acrobatic layup over a Cadet defender with 27 seconds left to give the Beavers the lead for good. On the ensuing Cadets possession, Murray got right to the front of the rim but missed the point blank layup. Chadbourne cleaned up the miss and hit one of two at the stripe to give the Beavers a three-point lead with seven seconds left. Liss missed a three from the left wing with five seconds to play to all but end the game. The rebound was controlled by Dubrul who laid it up and in at the buzzer as the Beavers held on for the win.
The Beavers had all five starters in double figures. Chadbourne and Harriman picked up 17 apiece as Mickle added 14, Anthony finished with 11, while Griffin pitched in with 10. All five starters finished with at least four rebounds as they used a collective effort to control the boards.
The Cadets also had five players in double figures, led by Nogard and Olivero who each finished with 17. Olivero also added 10 rebounds to post the double-double. Liss finished with 15 off the bench while Murray added 12 and Dubril pitched in with 10.
UP NEXT
The Beavers travel to Biddeford on Wednesday evening to take on the University of New England in a non-conference contest slated to start at 7:30 PM.
