FARMINGTON – Trailing by 10 points at intermission, the University of Southern Maine men’s basketball team outscored the University of Maine at Farmington 37-17 in the second half to take a 58-48 victory over the Beavers in Dearborn Gymnasium on Friday.

The Huskies improved to 3-6 with the win and ended a five-game losing streak, while Farmington entered the holiday break at 5-4. The Beavers are scheduled to return to action on Jan. 4 at Bowdoin College.

Greg Whitaker (Presque Isle, ME) scored 18 points and Ian Hebert (New Gloucester, ME) posted a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds to lead the USM’s rally. The Huskies dominated both ends of the floor in the second half, shooting 58.8 percent (10 of 17) and closing out the game at the foul line (13 of 15), while holding Farmington to 25 percent shooting (7 of 28, including 1 of 9 from 3-point range).

The Beavers built a 31-21 advantage at halftime behind a staunch defensive effort that held the Huskies to 27.3 percent shooting (9 of 33), but USM stormed into the second half with a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 31-30 before a jumper by Ted Neil (Strong, ME) got the Beavers their first points of the second half with 14:12 remaining.

Moments later, a Whitaker 3-pointer pushed the Huskies into the lead at 36-33. The two teams see-sawed back and forth before USM took command with a 10-2 run.

Farmington fought back with a layup by Isaac Hutchinson (Oakland, ME) allowing the Beavers to get to 49-46 with 3:12 left to go, but the Huskies outscored Farmington 9-2 over the final three minutes – 7 of 8 from the charity stripe – to take the win.

Hutchinson and Sean Fry (Jay, ME) each tallied 12 points for the Beavers. Fry and Hutchinson scored nine and eight points, respectively, in the opening frame.