After coming back from winter break, the USM men’s basketball team has faced a bumpy road, losing nine of their last ten games.
This trend didn’t change on Feb. 8 as they dropped their eighth straight game, losing a hard-fought battle to conference opponent Plymouth State 75-64 at Hill Gymnasium in Gorham.
The Huskies — who have been hampered by injuries and eligibility problems — shot only 39.7 percent from the field and were out-rebounded 45-33, and Plymouth’s bench contributed an outstanding 26 points to help them earn their tenth win of the season. With the loss, USM’s conference record dropped to 1-10 in the Little East and 9-13 overall.
The Panthers were led by senior Ian Dempsey, who scored 16 of his 17 points in the first half and pulled down seven rebounds. Senior Tom Dowd scored 16 points for Plymouth, and junior Jesse Sabolis added 13.
Plymouth got out to an early 6-0 lead off a layup from senior forward Bill Stowell and two easy layups from Dempsey. Stowell then fouled USM senior guard Otis Smith (Altamonte Springs, FL) who made one of two free throws to get the Huskies on the board, but Dempsey fired back on the next possession with a 3-pointer to put the Panthers up 9-1.
Less than two minutes later, the Huskies fought their way back to tie the score at nine with the help of an 8-0 run, highlighted by two layups from senior guard Devin Chambers (Memphis, Tenn.) and junior forward Jeremy Jackson (Laplace, LA), a jumper by Smith, and two foul shots by senior guard Luke Pollock (Eliot). A little over a minute later USM took the lead, 12-9, on a Smith three, but Plymouth answered right back as freshman guard Petey Skevas hit a jumper to pull within one.
From the 12:19 to the 6:45 mark, the teams traded the lead five times before Plymouth pulled ahead 21-19 on a Dowd layup. In the last 5 minutes and 30 seconds of play, Dempsey hit three 3-pointers for nine of his 16 in the first half to account for half of the Panthers’ total points at that point, leading 32-24 going into the break.
Coming out of the locker room, the Huskies hung around the Panthers for a good part of the half. Two consecutive layups by Pollock pulled USM within four. Less than a minute later, a personal and a technical foul by Stowell resulted in four made foul shots by Smith, cutting the PSU lead to two, 36-34, with 17:49 to play.
Chambers then rattled off six straight points for the Huskies on quick drives to the hoop to keep them within three of PSU. Chambers scored again at the 12:27 mark to tie it at 49 apiece.
After a two-minute scoreless span, the Panthers reclaimed the lead on a 3-pointer by Sabolis — a lead they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game. Missed scoring opportunities for the Huskies seemed to be the difference in the last ten minutes and the Panthers were just too much in the end, winning 75-64.
“I thought we played real well in our match-up zone, but we just didn’t capitalize on our opportunities toward the end and they did,” USM Head Coach Karl Henrickson said.
Chambers led all scorers with a career-high 23 points. Smith added 17 and six rebounds, and Pollock contributed nine. Chambers has been a solid player for the Huskies in the last month, as his aggressive style of play and athleticism are hard to stop.
“Devin can really get to the rim, and him and Mike (Poulin) were getting to the basket pretty well, which forced them to get into the zone,” Henrickson said. “We just couldn’t get it done in the end, though.”
Much like last year, the Huskies are somewhat shorthanded at this point in the season. After losing leading scorer Cortez Isaac (Washington, D.C.) to eligibility problems and starting forward Sean Bergeron (Kennebunk) to an ACL tear in a game against Colby on Feb. 1, the Huskies must find answers from other players if they want to finish strong.
“Responsibilities have to shift on other people’s shoulders, and the group needs to start responding as a whole,” Henrickson said. “We did do that defensively, but we also need to do it offensively.”