South Portland, ME – Injuries, illness, and foul trouble plagued the Mustangs Wednesday as the squad dropped a 76-67 game to SMCC in South Portland.
Four minutes into the game, Captain Rob Skinner went to the bench with three fouls. A minute later, sharpshooter Josh Cote went down with an ACL injury. Aussie all-star Pietro Badalassi has been out for seven games with his ankle injury---he simply traded crutches with Josh! Five mustangs missed the game because of illness or played limited minutes. To add insult to the situation, SMCC came out of the gate shooting the ball well and dominated play for the first half. CM went to the locker room down 42-26.
After regrouping at halftime, CM strapped up and dug in defensively. Mixing man coverage with zone coverage, the visitors clawed back into the game. Skinner came off the bench to ignite a run to bring the game to a 65-61 score with three minutes remaining. A huge three by Ryan Cloutier jumped the lead to seven points and a few free throws later, the Mustangs could not recover.
Akeem Laurie continued his hot shooting hitting for 20 points. Cornelius Lawhorn added 15 points and 9 rebounds.
For the SeaWolves John Morgan (one of the top five players in the conference) led his squad with 24 points and 13 rebounds.