Students represent SMCC with vigor in the 74-65 Women’s Basketball victory and 82-70 Men’s Basketball loss against Dean College on January 31st, the Men’s Team’s loss was only their second of the season.

By The Beacon Staff

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Josh Tuplin had five rebounds, all of which were offensive along with four assists and a three-pointer.

Men’s Basketball
Feb 5 – NHTI 6pm
Feb 11 – Central Maine CC 8pm
Feb 20-23 – The YSCC Post-Seacon Tournament at NHTI     (opponents TBA)

Woman’s Basketball
Feb 5 – NHTI 8pm
Feb 11 – Central Maine CC 6pm
Feb 19-23 – The YSCC Post-Seacon Tournament at NHTI    (opponents TBS)

With the YSCC post-season tournament on this side of the horizon, a mere 2 weeks away, the women and men’s basketball teams have been working hard to iron out rough spots, fine tune their games, and gain momentum while trying not to eye the rapidly approaching post-season tournament.
Over the weekend of the 25th, the Beacon sports staff was able to travel to Presque Isle in order to cover the Seawolf squads when they took to the hardwood floor to battle it out against the Owls of UMPI. The squads spent Friday evening in Bangor, breaking up what would have been a monotonous and debilitating 5½ hour bus ride into 2 shorter rides, enabling them to arrive at UMPI with fresh legs and a clear eye on the prize.
The Lady Wolves took to the court at noon, an hour ahead of their scheduled 1 o’clock start because of a storm that was headed up the coast and jumped out to a 6-2 lead after spotting UMPI the opening points of the game. The first 10 plus minutes of the game saw the Lady Wolves build a 20-10 lead behind the scoring of Alicia Hoyt, Tiana Burton and Amira Jones, who accounted for 16 of the 20 SMCC points.

Abigail Nielsen finished with a solid eighteen points, five rebounds, and two steals in the 74-65 win by SMCC over Dean College.

That is when the game got interesting and interesting fast as UMPI’s Darby Toth took over the game, scoring 20 of the 27 points posted by UMPI after trailing by 10, while guiding the Lady Owls to a 37-30 half-time lead. Simply put, Toth, the 5’4” junior guard, put on a show of driving and scoring which often frustrated the Lady Wolves guarding her. Toth would eventually foul out of the game with a little under 4minutes to play as SMCC held a 2pt lead. UMPI’s spunky point guard would lead the Lady Owls in scoring with 22pts and tie for game high honors with SMCC’s Alicia Hoyt, who also found the net for 22pts.
The 2nd half started with UMPI jumping out to a 15pt lead within the first 2 minutes as Darby Toth and 2 teammates drained 3-3 pointers, building a 46-31 lead for the Lady Owls. Over the course of the final 18 minutes and 25 seconds the bottom would slowly fall out for UMPI as the Lady Wolves outscored the Owls 27 to 12.
Again Alicia Hoyt found herself in the mix as she pulled SMCC to within 10 at the 15:19 mark on 2 free throws. UMPI’s Brianna Losee would answer, padding the Owls lead back to 13 on a 3-pointer at the 13:28 mark. Over the course of the next 8 minutes SMCC would gain minimal ground and trail by 11 when Brianna Losee popped another 3.
Leading 58-49 with 5:48 left in the game, the bottom completely fell out for UMPI as the Lady Wolves outscore the Owls 18-0 and walked off the UMPI court with a come-from-behind victory. Amira Jones and Tiana Burton would score 13 a piece, as Jordan Turner would net 9 for the Lady Wolves.

Tiana Burton came away with five assists and three steals in the Dean game, contributing valuable stats off the bench and helping push SMCC’s women’s basketball team to a 14-7 record.

The victory in Presque Isle was a wonderful step in the right direction after a frustrating loss to the Community College of Rhode Island 61-53. Last Thursday the Seawolves would win heavy-handed against Unity College in a 90pt blow out 113-23 and this past Saturday the Lady Seawolves would end up on the winning side against Dean College 74-65. The Lady Wolves now sit at 9-3 in the YSCC and hold down 2nd place following CMCC who come to South Portland on February 11th.
Shortly after the Lady Wolves walked off the Presque Isle floor the men squared off against an energetic Owl team that seemed to have something to prove against the division-leading Seawolves. After 5 minutes of play the Owls were 11pts up (15-4), as the men found themselves in a battle to remain undefeated in the YSCC. 5 minutes later SMCC was back in the game having cut the Owls lead to 2 on a 3pnt jumper by Chase Soares. The UMPI Owls would respond again, padding their lead to 7 (22-15), after which SMCC would out-score Presque Isle 15-8, knotting the halftime score at 30 a piece.
The opening of the second half saw SMCC score the first 9pts behind the scoring of Tyheem Simon (5pts), and Carlos Gonzalez and Chase Soares. The Owls would hit from beyond the 3pt arch, cutting the SMCC lead to 6, only to see Chase Soares connect with a 3, padding SMCC’s lead back to 9. Again UMPI hit from beyond the arch trimming the lead to 6 at which point Emmanuel Perry drained a 3, grabbing a 9pt lead for SMCC.
The rest of the half saw UMPI trying to claw their way back into the game and SMCC respond to the threat. SMCC’s lead would fluctuate between 5 and 13 for the remainder of the game.
In the end SMCC would walk off of UMPI’s basketball court with a 74-64 win, their 6th win in a row, while improving to 17-1. One week later SMCC would fall to Dean College 60-72, which dropped their record to 17-2.