1/26/08

Men's basketball falls to Becker

FARMINGTON -- Becker College sent University of Maine at Farmington to its third straight North Atlantic Conference loss with an 86-73 victory over the Beavers in men's basketball in Dearborn Gymnasium today.

Farmington slipped to 8-10 (4-4 in the North Atlantic Conference) and is scheduled to visit Colby College Tuesday for a 5 p.m. contest. The Hawks improved to 8-9 (5-2) and are slated to visit Eastern Nazarene College on Tuesday.

Travis Suber (Springfield, MA) -- the NAC's leading scorer -- powered Becker with 26 points. Suber also led the team in assists (5) and steals (4). DJ Exum (New London, CT) and Kevin Miranda (Brockton, MA) each supplied 17 points with Miranda hitting five 3-pointers. Steve Jacobs (Lexington Park, MD) also got into double-digits with 11 points.

The Hawks outshot the Beavers from the field 51.0 percent (25-49) to 42.6 percent (26 of 61), including nine of 20 from long distance.

Sean Fry (Jay, ME) led Farmington with 17 points, while Matt St. John (Wayne, ME) chipped in 10 points -- all in the first half.

The Hawks soared off the bus and opened a 7-0 advantage in the first few minutes. Becker built its biggest lead of the half on Miranda's beyond-the-arc ability as the freshman hit a pair of 3-pointers on back-to-back trips for a 40-28 lead. The Beavers finished the half strong to face a 49-40 deficit at intermission.

The Hawks opened things up at the start of the second half with another Miranda triple followed by a steal-foul-technical foul sequence allowed the visitors to lengthen its advantage to 63-44. The Beavers could not reduce the lead to less than 10 points as Becker came away with the 86-73 win.