Castine, ME - Husson men's basketball climbed back from an 18 point deficit at the beginning of the game against Maine Maritime Academy on Tuesday night, but the team's comeback aspirations in the second half fell short, as the Mariners escaped with a 53-51 win. This was Husson's first North Atlantic Conference men's basketball matchup and brings the Eagles to 1-3 on the young season (0-1 NAC). The Mariners are 1-4 (1-0 NAC).

Marc Zaharchuk (Richmond, ME) scored a game-high 16 points for Husson and Brooks Spaulding (Fairfield, ME) finished with nine points and eight rebounds. Andy Ball recorded a double-double for MMA with 11 points and 11 rebounds and Ben Russell added 10 points.

Four of the Mariners starters scored points in the opening four minutes to take a 12-0 lead. A pair of Russell free throws gave the Mariners a 20 point, 23-3, lead at 9:25 in the first and MMA would lead by as much as 25 before taking a 36-13 lead into the break.

Husson came out strong in the second half and slowly chipped away at the Mariners lead beginning at the 15:18 mark with MMA holding a 42-21 lead. The Eagles scored 12 unanswered points in the next five minutes to cut their deficit to nine, 42-33. Zaharchuk scored six points in the run for Husson, Eric Modica (Kittery, ME) added three, Aaron Willis (New York, NY) two, and Spaulding one.

MMA increased its lead to 10, 48-38, on a pair of Chiasson free throws at 7:19 before the Eagles put together an 11-3 scoring run to close the gap to two, 51-49, with 2:02 left in the game. Brad Reed converted a pair of free throws to put MMA ahead 53-49 before Zaharchuk matched him with a pair of his own to make 53-51 with 48 seconds left. Willis had a chance to send the game into overtime but his layup attempt rimmed out as time expired.

The Eagles return to action Friday hosting NAC foe Castleton at 7:30 p.m.