FARMINGTON, Maine -- The third-seeded University of Maine at Farmington men's basketball team advanced to the North Atlantic Conference Semifinals with an 85-72 quarterfinal victory over No. 6 New England College tonight at Dearborn Gymnasium.
The Beavers improved to 16-10 and await the winner of No. 2 Colby-Sawyer College and No. 7 Johnson State College. The 16th win is the most by a UMF men's basketball team since 1999-2000 (21-5). The Pilgrims finished their season at 7-19.
Kevin Leary (Manchester, Maine) led four UMF players in double-figures with 17 points followed by Pet Sumner (Cramerton, N.C.) with 15 points, Ben Johnson (Manchester, Maine) with 14 points and nine rebounds and Yusuf Iman (Auburn, Maine) with 11 points off the bench.
After leading 33-32 at halftime, the Beavers shot 61.3 percent (19-31) in the second half and rolled out to a 19-point advantage. NEC was able to knock the advantage down to eight points twice in the final 2:51, but UMF withstood the charge for the 85-72 win.
Abdi Mohamed (Biddeford, Maine) scored a game-high 23 points, including five 3-pointers, for the Pilgrims while Eric Eklund (Harrison, N.Y.) supplied 15 points. Troy Prather (Claremont, Calif.) popped in 13 points and made five steals in the loss with Jonathan Byrnes (Bethel, Conn.) adding 10 points.
Leary and Dan Kane (Bradford, Maine) each hit a 3-pointer as the Beavers outscored NEC 16-7 over the first 5:44. The UMF lead grew to 25-12 on an Iman steal-and-layup with 8:10 until intermission.
The Beavers led 33-23 with 3:21 left in the half, but Mohamed buried a pair of threes to spur the Pilgrims on a 9-0 run to close out the opening frame and cut the UMF advantage down to 33-32.
UMF used an 11-3 spurt out of the break to distance itself from the Pilgrims with a Johnson putback making it 44-35 with 16:23 remaining in regulation. A run for the Beavers -- this time 12-4 -- helped the hosts expanded their lead to 58-42 on an Andrew Dickey (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) three with 13:14 left in the contest.
The Beavers' biggest command came with 6:32 remaining when a Tim Gingras (Winthrop, Maine) backdoor layup pushed the lead to 70-51. Leading 75-59 on a Johnson dunk with 5:16 left, the Pilgrims outscored UMF 10-2 over the next 2:25 with a Prather trey cutting the lead to 77-69 with 2:51 to go.
After a Mohamed hoop-and-harm made it 80-72 with 2:07 to play, UMF held the visitors scoreless to close out the game with a Johnson layup and three of four free throws by Iman capping the 85-72 win.
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Newspaper Box Score
New England College vs Me.-Farmington
02/21/12 6:00 pm at Farmington, Maine
At Farmington, Maine
ME.-FARMINGTON 85, NEW ENGLAND COLLEGE 72
NEW ENGLAND COLLEGE (7-19)
Abdirahman Mohamed 7-16 4-4 23; Eric Eklund 6-9 3-5 15; Troy Prather 4-8 3-4
13; Jonathan Byrnes 2-5 5-5 10; Ryan Schmitz 3-7 0-0 6; Spencer Marzouk 1-3
0-0 3; Marino Moore 0-2 2-2 2; Jeremiah Johnson 0-2 0-0 0; Bill Dynan 0-0
0-0 0; Steven Cronin 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 23-54 17-20 72.
ME.-FARMINGTON (16-10)
Kevin Leary 5-9 5-5 17; Pet Sumner 7-10 0-1 15; Ben Johnson 7-12 0-0 14;
Yusuf Iman 3-4 4-5 11; Joe McCloskey 3-8 1-1 8; Dan Kane 3-9 0-0 7; Andrew
Dickey 2-6 0-0 6; Nate Carson 1-3 2-2 4; Tim Gingras 1-2 1-2 3; Garrett
Clemmer 0-0 0-0 0; Shane Tracy 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-63 13-16 85.
New England College........... 32 40 - 72
Me.-Farmington................ 33 52 - 85
3-point goals--New England College 9-21 (Abdirahman Mohamed 5-11; Troy
Prather 2-3; Jonathan Byrnes 1-1; Spencer Marzouk 1-2; Jeremiah Johnson 0-1;
Ryan Schmitz 0-3), Me.-Farmington 8-21 (Andrew Dickey 2-3; Kevin Leary 2-5;
Yusuf Iman 1-1; Pet Sumner 1-4; Dan Kane 1-5; Joe McCloskey 1-2; Nate Carson
0-1). Fouled out--New England College-None, Me.-Farmington-None.
Rebounds--New England College 22 (Ryan Schmitz 5), Me.-Farmington 42 (Ben
Johnson 9). Assists--New England College 16 (Abdirahman Mohamed 5),
Me.-Farmington 21 (Dan Kane 6). Total fouls--New England College 17,
Me.-Farmington 18. Technical fouls--New England College-None,
Me.-Farmington-None. A-175
North Atlantic Conference Men's Basketball Quarterfinal