Auburn, ME – CMCC Men's Basketball fell to Washington County Community College on Sunday, 95-91 in overtime, in the teams' last of three meetings this season. Marc Paris tied the game on the Golden Eagles final possession of regulation before the visitors took the lead for good in the extra frame. Khaden Moore led the Mustangs with 28 points while three other players ended in double figures.
Central Maine had to recover from a slow start after going down 16-8 through the first 5:20 of the game. Three-pointers from Ben Francis and J.T. Pound helped cut down the deficit, and layups from Moore, Wyatt Hathaway, and Da'Vohn Jonas put CMCC on top just before the ten-minute mark. WCCC ended the first half with a seven-point lead thanks to good starts from Paris (15 points) and Matthew Morgan (13) to go up 45-38 at the break.
The Mustangs have been a second half team as of late though, and that proved be the case once again with another rally. Rocco Chang and Will Duke knocked down jumpers while Moore consistently finished in the paint, tying the score at 52-52 after five minutes.
The teams traded the lead back-and-forth until CMCC pulled away on an 11-1 run to make it 68-58. It looked like Washington County might suffer a similar result to their game against Central Maine in mid-January when they lost a similar first-half lead on their home court. This time however, the Golden Eagles had a late run left in them to draw level.
Tyler Thomas hit back-to-back jump shots to pull close and Paris made it a one-possession game after converting a layup with 30 seconds left. He was fouled by Jonas in the process and after an offensive rebound on the missed free throw, coach Troy Alley called timeout to draw up a potential game-tying play. Paris got to the lane and hit his shot with 19 seconds left to make it 84-84.
In the overtime period, Dacory Owens scored seven points to put WCCC up 91-85. Moore had three straight buckets for the Mustangs to cut lead down to 93-91 in the final minute. Santana Noel hit one of two free throws with five seconds left, but the Golden Eagles pulled down an offensive rebound. One more free throw from Noel was enough to seal the deal for a 95-91 victory.
Behind Moore's 28 points, Chang finished with 17, Duke had 14, and Pound ended with 13 off the bench. CMCC outrebounded WCCC 46 to 39 and scored 42 points in the paint but could not match the Golden Eagles 46.5% shooting mark from the floor. The Mustangs fell to 15-10 on the year while Washington County improved 4-13.
Up next, the squad heads to UMaine-Fort Kent for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday against the Bengals. Tip-off on Friday, February 7th is slated for 8:00 pm.
