Box Score (Game
Box)
PLYMOUTH, N.H. - Senior
Ben Huntington (Hampstead, N.H.) matched his
career high with 27 points Tuesday evening, leading Plymouth State
University to a 71-47 victory over the University of Southern Maine
in Little East Conference men's basketball action at Foley
Gymnasium.
The Panthers extended their winning streak to three games, evening
their season record at 12-12 overall. PSU also locked up third
place in the LEC regular season with an 8-5 mark, clinching
home-court advantage in the first round of next week's conference
tournament. USM dropped its eighth in a row and fell to 4-20
overall and 1-12 in conference play.
Huntington made 8-of-12 shots from the floor and 5-of-7 from
three-point range. The LEC's leading free throw shooter (93.1
percent) also converted all six attempts from the stripe,
increasing his consecutive made free throw streak to 36.
Huntington is also just seven points shy of becoming the
22nd player in the program's history to score 1,000
points.
Junior Bryan Tracy (Manchester, N.H./Central) also
scored in double figures for the Panthers with 11 points, thanks to
three three-point buckets. Classmate Mike
Chergey (Bow, N.H.) chipped in with a team-high eight
rebounds.
Three players reached double digits in scoring for USM - freshman
Sean Bergeron (Kennebunk, Maine) with 11 points and junior Greg
Whitaker (Presque Isle, Maine) and sophomore Otis Smith (Altamonte
Springs, Fla.) with 10 apiece.
PSU took control of the game midway through the opening half, going
on a 12-2 run to take its first double-digit lead (18-8). USM
scored six straight to get back to within four points, but the home
team outscored the visitors 15-6 over the last six minutes of the
half to take a 33-20 advantage to the locker room.
The Panthers opened the second half with a 12-4 spurt to get the
lead up over 20 points before coasting home the rest of the
way. PSU shot 49 percent from the field for the night while
holding the Huskies to a 28 percent shooting clip. Plymouth
State was 10-of-19 from three-point range while USM was 1-of-13
from beyond the arc.
The teams wrap up the regular season at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, PSU
hosting UMass Dartmouth on Senior Day at Foley Gymnasium and
Southern Maine entertaining Western Connecticut.
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