UMBC

Baltimore, Md.—Junior forward Blagoj Janev scored 23 points to lead an effective New Hampshire effort as the visiting Wildcats (4-11, 2-3 America East) defeated UMBC (6-9, 2-2), 72-58 before 1,042 at the RAC Arena.

New Hampshire has won all three meetings with UMBC in Baltimore and are 4-2 overall against the Retrievers.  The Wildcats have won two straight, while UMBC has lost two in a row.

UNH, coming off an impressive 77-69 win over Hartford on Sunday, continued their outstanding overall play on the road against a listless UMBC team. The Wildcats hit 50 percent (22/44) from the floor, 42.9 percent (9/21) from behind the arc and 90.5 percent (19/21) from the free throw line. They outrebounded UMBC, 35-24, and committed only nine turnovers.

Conversely, UMBC made just 7 of 24 first half field goal attempts and finished at 41.8 percent (23/55) for the night. They were just 6 of 21 from three-point range and 6 of 12 from the free throw line. UNH was averaging just 56.6 points per game entering the night, but UMBC, which allows the most points per game in the league, permitted the Wildcats to hit 12 of 18 shots from the floor in the second half.

New Hampshire did not start the game well, missing nine of their first ten shots and UMBC took an early 10-4 lead. But the Retrievers could not capitalize and the Wildcats found the range, hitting nine of their final 16 shots from the floor in the stanza. The Retrievers had their last lead at 19-7 on a Jerrell Dinkins jumper with 5:16 to play in the half, but UNH went on an 11-2 run to close the half. Sophomore Mike Christensen keyed the run by sandwiching a pair of three-point goals around a dunk on a drive to the basket.

UNH led, 28-20 at intermission and built a 15-point advantage at 39-24 early in the second half. The Retrievers had one run in them as they whittled the lead to 46-39 on a short jumper by Chris Pugh with 9:17 to play. But Janev hit a three-pointer at the very end of the shot clock on the next possession, and after a Brian Hodges missed three on the other end, Janev buried another long range shot from the top of the key to put the visitors comfortably ahead, 52-39 with 8:42 remaining.

Christensen hit all three shots from behind the arc en route to a 17-point effort, while Jermaine Anderson added 11 points and a game-high five assists. Janev also contributed a game-high eight rebounds. Hodges led UMBC with 16 points, but was just 6 of 15 from the floor and 1 of 7 from behind the arc. Freshman guard Jay Greene, who hit four three-point goals (4/7) added 13 points, while Dinkins added 12.