Lions Tame Bears At Cross Center

The University of Maine men’s basketball team fell to Columbia in the final out-of-conference match-up of the regular season by a score of 98-73.

The Black Bears took and early 4-0 lead versus the Lions at the Cross Insurance Center before Columbia came back and took the advantage for the remainder of the game.  UMaine cut the deficit to just 8 points in the second half before Columbia came back strong to extend the lead on way to the victory.

The Lions shot 45 percent from the floor and connected on 12 of 29 shots from three-point range against UMaine.  Columbia was led in the contest by Mike Smith who had a game high 23 points, while Luke Petrasek had 22 points and seven rebounds.

Maine was led by Danny Evans who had 16 points in the loss.  Marko Pirovic and Wes Myers also had double digits in points for the contest.  During the contest however reigning America East Rookie of the Week Andrew Fleming went down with an ankle injury.  The extent of the sprain is not known at this time.

Next up for the Black Bears is a home conference game versus Vermont at the Cross Insurance Center.  Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. for the 4-11 UMaine program.