Men's Basketball Defeats Maine In The Waning Moments, 50-49

ALBANY, N.Y. – A hard-nose effort by sophomore forward Sam Rowley, having tallied 19 points, eight coming in the last 2 and half minutes pushed the University at Albany past Maine, 50-49, on Saturday, March 9 at SEFCU Arena. The Great Danes prepare for the No. 1 seed Stony Brook on Sunday, March 10 at 7 p.m.

Rowley paced all players with his 19 points and eight rebounds, on 7-of-14 shooting from the field. Senior guard Mike Black tallied nine points, shooting a perfect 4-of-4 from the free-throw line. Black's nine points pushed him over the 1,500-point barrier to become the 44th America East Conference player to accomplish the feat.

At the 7:40 mark in the second half, UAlbany (22-10) head coach Will Brown received a technical foul from the ref. Following a made free-throw from Maine's Zarko Valjarevic, Maine held an eight-point lead, 44-36.

The Great Dane technical foul sparked a 12-0 run, in a span of five minutes, and give them their first lead of the contest, 46-44, with 2:20 remaining on the clock. Rowley recorded six of the teams 12 points during the run and the team hit a perfect 6-of-6 during the stretch.

Following UAlbany's first lead, Maine responded back with two free-throws by Xavier Pollard and layup by Justin Edwards to regain the lead, 48-46, with 1:23 left in regulation.

Rowley responded with a solid post move down low to tie the contest at 48 with 70 seconds left.

On the Black Bears next posession, Mike Allison was put on the line and shot 1-of-2 to grab a one-point lead, 49-48, with 40 seconds left.

After a timeout with 32 second remaining, UAlbany went to Rowley one last time and he proved to be clutch, hitting the 5-foot bunny to give the Great Danes a one-point lead, 50-49, with just under 15 seconds.

Maine had one final shot from Justin Edwards, who was covered by three people, but it did not fall and allow UAlbany to move on to the America East Conference Semifinals.