Auburn, ME - To be successful, a team must play 40-minutes of organized, fundamental basketball and out-work its opponents. The Mustangs displayed those qualities Sunday for 20 of those 40 minutes against a strong, talented, and well coached Dean College squad and took a 44-43 lead into halftime.
However, basketball is a game of two halves and Dean adjusted and came out in the second half to outscore the home team 54-31 to take home a 97-85 win.
CM shot a sound 62% (5-8) from the three-point line in the first half; shot a nice 56% (17-30) from inside the arc in the second half but simply couldn't get over the size hump as they were out rebounded 36-24 for the game. The Bulldogs dominated the inside game with the Mustangs playing catchup up all the second half.
Rob Skinner (3 rebounds, 6 steals) and Pietro Badalassi (7 rebounds, 4 assists) combined for 30 points of the Mustangs scoring. In his best game of the season, Cam Duncan hit for 12 points on a 5-6 shooting night and registered 5 rebounds.
CM travels to Great Bay on Thursday for a 8pm tipoff.