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 Men's Basketball Travels to Stony Brook
Feb. 24, 2006
Complete Release in PDF Format
The University of Maine men's basketball team travels to Stony Brook for the regular season finale on Sunday, February 26. Maine is coming off a 69-66 win over UMBC on Thursday night thanks to a half court shot by Ernest Turner (Camden, N.J.) at the buzzer. Stony Brook is 4-22 on the season after falling to Hartford 76-65. A LOOK BACK: Ernest Turner (Camden, N.J.) hit a half court shot as time expired to break a 66-66 tie and lead the Maine men's basketball team past UMBC on Senior Night. The shot capped a huge comeback for Maine who trailed by as many as 20 points. ?UMBC started the game on a 10-0 run before Maine was able to get on the scoreboard with an Ernest Turner jumper. The Retrievers continued to add to their lead and pushed their lead to 33-15. Freddy Petkus (Plunge, Lithuania) stopped the run with a three-point field goal with 3:05 remaining in the half. ?UMBC opened the second half on a 4-0 run to push it's lead to 20 points before the Black Bears took over the game. Maine went on a 15-2 run sparked by five three-point field goals. Ernest Turner had three three-pointers, while Jon Sheets (Grass Valley, Calif.) had a pair. Petkus had assists on four of the five three-pointers. ?Maine then went on a 14-2 run to grab a three-point lead. Rashard Turner (Peekskill, N.Y.) highlighted the second run with eight points. ?The Black Bears built their lead to as many as seven points when Chris Bruff (Bloomfield, Conn.) scored on a layup with 6:51 remaining. UMBC would not go away, however, and continued to chip away at Maine's lead. A Mike Housman layup with 3:59 lead cut the lead to one point at 60-59. Back-to-back hoops by Rashard Turner and Ernest Turner gave Maine a 66-60 lead. ?The Retrievers scored six straight points to tied the game. Chris Pugh hit a three-point field goal with just two seconds remaining to knot the game at 66-66. With the game looking like it would head to overtime, Ernest Turner sent the Maine crowd home happy with his heroics at the buzzer. ?Maine was led by Ernest Turner who scored 23 points and grabbed six rebounds. Rashard Turner added 17 points. Olli Ahvenniemi (Vaasa, Finland) had seven points, six rebounds and four blocks, while Sheets had six points and six assists. SCOUTING THE BLACK BEARS: Maine is led by Ernest Turner who is averaging 15.1 points per game and 4.3 rebounds a contest. He is recording 1.4 steals per game. Rashard Turner is scoring 9.9 points per game and has a team-high 3.0 assists per game. Philippe Tchekane Bofia (Yaounde, Cameroon) is adding 9.7 points per game and 5.5 rebounds a game. Jon Sheets is chipping in with 9.4 points per game. He has hit a team-high 62 three-point field goals this season and is dishing out 2.8 assists per game. Bruff is chipping in with 6.8 points per game and 4.3 rebounds a contest. Olli Ahvenniemi is adding 6.1 points per game. He leads the Black Bears in rebounds, with 6.2 per game, and in blocks, averaging 2.6 per game. ?Maine is scoring 64.0 points per game, while its opponents are scoring 67.7 points per game. The Black Bears are shooting 41.3 percent from the floor, while their opponents are connecting 42.8 percent from the floor. A SENIOR NIGHT TO REMEMBER: Ernest Turner had a senior night to remember. With two seconds remaining in the game, classmate Freddy Petkus inbounded the ball to Turner who took several dribbles and launched a shot from half court. The shot, which hit nothing but net, broke a 66-66 tie and gave the Black Bears the 69-66 victory. A TALE OF TWO HALVES: It was a tale of two halves on Thursday against UMBC. Maine shot 36.4 percent in the first half from the floor, including just 9.1 percent from behind the three-point arc. The Black Bears trailed by 16 points at the half and saw that deficit go to 20 points early in the second half. Maine then made a turnaround of epic proportions. The Black Bears shot 62.1 percent in the second half, including 78.6 percent from three-point range as they connected on 11-of-14 shots. SHEETS, Ernest Turner AMONG THREE-POINT LEADERS: Jon Sheets and Ernest Turner are among the single season three-point field goal leaders at Maine. Sheets currently has 62 three-point field goals which ranks ninth on the single season leaders list. Ernest Turner ranks tied for 14th with 51 three-point field goals. PLAYOFF PICTURE: Maine currently sits in seventh place in the America East standings and will either finish in seventh or eighth place. Maine will finish seventh unless Stony Brook defeats Maine AND UMBC defeats Albany. Albany has won the America East regular season title and will be the number one seed. Binghamton has captured the second seed. If Maine finishes seventh, it will play Binghamton in the first round of the America East Tournament. SEASON-HIGH FOR THREES: Maine hit a season-high 12 three-point field goals on Thursday against UMBC. Eleven of the 12 three-point field goals came in the second half alone when Maine shot 11-of-14 from behind the arc.
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