Auburn, ME – The CMCC Men's Basketball team held off a tough challenge from Washington County Community College, knocking off the Golden Eagles 96-86 at home on Saturday night. Senior captain Wyatt Hathaway paced the Mustangs with a season-high 24 points while Khaden Moore finished with 22 and J.T. Pound added 20 of his own.

The game was a physical and up-tempo contest with both teams reaching the 50-point mark in the second half and swapping the lead nine times. The officials whistled for a combined 38 fouls in the contest.

The visitors led the way out of the gate for nearly the entire first half. Central Maine jumped on top just before the halftime horn with a layup from Pound with 30 seconds left to make it 38-36. Both teams shot higher than 40% from the field in the first 20 minutes, but had longer possessions as they got in rhythm.

Matthew Morgan reached double figures with 10 first-half points for the Golden Eagles, while Hathaway's nine and eight points each from both Moore and Da'Vohn Jonas helped tighten things up after WCCC led by as many as seven.

Madden Cupe gave his team a 55-53 lead with a layup with 11:50 left to play with Washington County hoping to spoil Central Maine's chance at winning back-to-back games for the first time this season. Shots from Moore and Pound put the Mustangs up 68-61 with eight minutes to play, and Hathaway knocked down a pair of jumpers to increase the lead to ten.

CMCC struggled against the full court press in the closing minutes, throwing a lifeline to WCCC. But a timeout and stern word from head coach Dave Gonyea ended the Mustangs run of turnovers and appeared to calm some nerves, as his team closed out the game making eight of their final nine foul shots.

The hosts used their size advantage well, winning the rebounding battle 43 to 21 and finishing with 50 points in the paint. Pound grabbed 11 rebounds to go along with his 20 points and Will Duke had a game-high eight assists. The Mustangs starting five was impressive as well, totaling 85 of the team's 96 points. Raysean Epps had 23 for WCCC with Morgan (19), Cupe (15) and Marc Paris (12) also reaching double figures.

The Mustangs finish off their doubleheader weekend on Sunday with a visit from USCAA D1 opponent UMaine-Fort Kent at 3:00 pm.