WORCESTER, Mass. – Like most teams at this time of the year, Maine is very much a work in progress. In the Black Bears’ case, their early 0-2 mark, which could easily be 1-1, isn’t necessarily a sign of things to come with this team. Though young, this team also hasn’t really had their full squad together very much, and that’s one reason to think this team has some better basketball ahead.
Maine lost a close one at Holy Cross on Wednesday night, a 57-54 decision. The Black Bears went 2-19 from long range, including one by Xavier Pollard that was right on line but back-rimmed out at the buzzer, allowing the Crusaders to hang on. If a couple of those shots drop, it’s possible we’re talking about a 1-1 team with both games having been on the road.
“I thought we played solid defense,” said head coach Ted Woodward. “I thought we battled really well. We certainly didn’t put our heads down.”
The Black Bears could have done that on a couple of occasions, most notably early in the second half. The teams traded runs in the first half, with Maine taking the lead with a 16-2 run and holding it until the last minute of the half. Holy Cross then won the crucial opening minutes of the second half, running off eight unanswered to go up 38-28 less than four minutes in and leading Woodward to call a timeout.
Maine would regroup, however, and make it a competitive game in the latter part of the second half, tying it at 50 with just over four minutes to go. They still didn’t go away after Holy Cross broke that tie with five straight points.
With just four upperclassmen on the roster, the Black Bears are a decidedly young group. Three of those upperclassmen start, led by Alasdair Fraser, who had 21 points and 15 boards and has worked himself into better shape over his career in Orono. That was a welcome change from the opener, when Dartmouth held him to just two points. He might also be the most natural leader of the group, as he is one of their most experienced players and has been in the program his entire career. With senior Mike Allison joining him, the Black Bears should hold their own inside, and they did at times on Wednesday in out-rebounding Holy Cross 48-44 and having a 32-18 edge in points in the paint.
Where there is some transition is on the perimeter. Pollard and Justin Edwards, both sophomores, don’t really play like they have a position, as both are expected to handle and distribute the ball in addition to scoring. As Woodward notes, Edwards is capable of creating for others as well as himself, and he did just that in handing out six assists on a night where he struggled from the field. Edwards was 1-16, including 0-6 from long range, while Pollard had 14 points and eight boards. Edwards won’t shoot like that every game, so this will be an outlier.
Woodward has high hopes for a couple of newcomers on the perimeter in Leon Cooper, Jr., a junior college transfer who has been hampered by illness, and freshman Shaun Lawton, who has been slowed by an injury and did not play in either of the team’s first two games. Cooper played 18 minutes on Wednesday in his first appearance of the season. Another freshman, Dimitry Akanda-Coronel, was only recently cleared by the NCAA, so they have been without him. The Black Bears have some size on the perimeter, as no one on the team is shorter than 6’3″.
Right now, the Black Bears’ defense is ahead of the offense. They played well enough to win on Wednesday night, but in both games they struggled to shoot. They are 4-32 from long range on the year and shot 29.2 percent from the field on Wednesday. Turnovers hurt them in the opener but were not as much of a problem on Wednesday night.
“I know right now we’re struggling shooting the basketball, but we shoot it very well every day in the gym, and we feel like that’s going to come around for us,” said Woodward.
Woodward noted that the team’s youth is a big reason there aren’t a lot of leaders on this team, so that’s something that will have to come along. Fraser is certainly one who could do that, and a couple of newcomers may have that in their makeup, but it’s hard for a newcomer to come in and be a vocal leader right away.
Maine finally gets a home game on Saturday, when Brown visits, but then it’s right back on the road for much of the next month. They play at Seton Hall, return home to play Siena, then hit the road for Northeastern and Duquesne and later play three more in a row on the road before final exams. They hope to have their full squad soon, and by then the offense may start to catch up to the defense.
