Box Score Bangor, ME – The Husson men's basketball team evened its season series vs. the Mariners of Maine Maritime Academy Friday evening with a 68-58 NAC victory at Newman Gymnasium. The Eagles held a 10-point 33-23 lead at halftime, and fought off a gridlocked 35-35 second half in scoring for the win.
Marc Zaharchuck had yet another impressive game for the Eagles off the bench, scoring 19 points on 7-12 shooting and 5-7 from the line in 18 minutes of action. The man in the middle also nabbed five rebounds coming off the pine.
Husson held small leads all throughout the first half, and started to pull away from the play of Zaharchuck, who made a turnaround at the 8:48 mark to break a 14-14 deadlock. After a Wes Murphy three, Zaharchuck hit two consecutive low post shots to push the Eagle lead to nine, 23-14. Moments later, as Jacob Moore hit from 15 feet and Eric Modica drained two free throws, Husson had its largest lead of the night at 27-14.
The second half was more of a grinding battle, as Husson pushed its lead up to 15 early on, but slowly the Mariners chipped away.
Logan Poirier led the Mariner charge netting 14 points while grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds and a blocked shot. Not far behind was Andy Ball, who had 12 points of his own and six rebounds.
With just 2:40 to go in the game, MMA cut the lead to seven on a Paul Campbell Jumper, 63-56. Corey Wood laid one in seconds later to push the lead back to nine for the Eagles, as Husson, with Wood's closing three out-of-four free throws, held on for the win.
Head Coach Warren Caruso said after the game: "I'm really proud of our guys and how they responded to a tough week, playing back to back nights without [a full roster]. We had to adjust with injuries and illness and guys really had to step up. We continue to improve heading into a big week coming up."
Husson has a big non-conference matchup with Bates College this Tuesday the 29th in Lewiston at 7:00pm, and then travel to Vermont to take on Green Mountain Friday at 5:30pm and Castleton Saturday at 1:00pm.
