Bengals Sweep Season Series with Machias
The University of Maine at Fort Kent men’s and women’s basketball teams both won road, instate rival games at University of Maine Machias on Thursday evening. The men won 100-66 and move to 19-7 on the season.
In the men’s game, Machias handled the Bengal pressure early and settled into a back-and-forth game. UMFK was scoring in transition, but Machias’s dribble penetration was keeping them in the game. A Darius Clark layup with 9:03 to go in the half brought the Home team to within 23-20.
UMFK leading scorer Anthony Knight then took over, scoring 14 of his first half 20 over the final nine minutes. He had two threes and two dunks, and the Bengals ended the half on a 36-15 run. UMFK also shot 15-20 over that stretch to balloon the halftime lead to 21. Machias turned the ball over 12 times in the first half alone.
The second half was more of the same, as the half-court trapping defense of UMFK was too much for the Clippers to handle. The Bengals continued to force turnovers that led to easy buckets on the other end. UMFK opened the half on a 31-10 run to stretch the lead to 88-45 with 5:46 to go.
Knight finished with a game-high 24 points on 11-14 shooting. Bobby Syvanthong shot 10-12 and finished with 21. Tom Enerva had 13 points and 12 rebounds, while Johnathan Caldwell finished with 12.
Machias was led by Travonne Thompson, who had 16 points and 13 rebounds.