AUBURN - Central Maine Community College allowed a second-half,15-point lead to dissolve as New Hampshire Technical Institute wriggled free with 103-98 victory in a men's basketball game at raucous Kirk Hall on Thursday night.

 "(We) just didn't hold it together at the end," CMCC mens basketball Dave Gonyea said. "Maybe fatigue kicked in and maybe didn't play enough guys. We need to make some changes. We need to get more guys more time. We need to rest more guys.

 "The part that is very hard is that I think we are very soft and that really bothers me, and I am not quite sure how to fix that, but we will address that."

 The Mustangs rallied in the first half and constructed a sturdy 62-49 after the Lynx took a commanding early lead in the opening minutes of the game.

 "We can shoot it. God knows we can shoot, but I think guys stopped playing together and they start trying to do it themselves," Gonyea said. "That is a problem for us.

 "We can score. There is no question we can score, but we are soft on defense and we've got to fix that. That is a major concern."

 The Mustangs continued to dominate the game in the second half, but NHTI chipped away at CMCC to tie the game and eventually move ahead.

 Guard Wyatt Hathaway hit four 3-pointers and led the Mustangs with 21 points. Boston Caldwell and Jackson Birmingham turned in 17- and 16-point performances, respectively, while Cam Pollock added 15 points and earned seven assists and Harry Bates and Jeremiah Simeon each contributed 12.

 But besides NHTI's aggressive play and persistence, the Lynx's long-range ordinance from the perimeter hounded the Mustangs. NHTI deposited 17 3-pointers, with game-leading scorer Joseph Cantey hitting seven of his 12 3-point attempts to compile 29 points. Terrain Wester and Rahsheen Caulk helped out 18 and 17 points, respectively.