ORONO, Maine - The University of Maine men's basketball team dropped their third straight contest on Saturday afternoon, as the Hartford Hawks came into Memorial Gymnasium on the Orono campus and gritted out a 55-49 victory over the Black Bears. 

After entering halftime with a 25-18 deficit hanging over them, the Black Bears put together a solid rally bid between the 14:40 and 9:41 mark of the second half, running out an 11-2 stretch that tied things up at 33-33. The Hawks stood tall however, rattling off a 12-4 run of their own over the next 4:42 of game time to regain a ten-point advantage. Maine managed to trim the lead down to six with under thirty seconds to go, but a 4-0 run was too little too late and Hartford left the floor with their sixth conference victory of the season.

MAINE GAME NOTES

• Neither team shot the ball well, as Maine put up a 31.0/16.7/64.3 shooting line and Hartford managed a 35.1/15.8/80.0 mark. The two teams combined to go 7-33 from three-point land. 
• Andrew Fleming managed to make a big impact despite some shooting struggles, pulling down 13 rebounds and recording a pair of blocks and a pair of steals. 
• Sergio El Darwich returned to the starting lineup and posted a team-high 15 points along with six rebounds. 
• Stephane Ingo recorded a strong first half with seven points, five rebounds, and a pair of blocks in just under 14 minutes. The redshirt freshman recorded just five minutes of court time in the second half, pulling down a pair of boards to give him an even seven points, seven rebounds on the day.

UP NEXT 

• Maine hits the road for their next three contests after playing their four of their last five at home. First up is a trip to Burlington to take on the Vermont Catamounts on Wednesday afternoon at 5:00. They'll follow that up with trips to Binghamton and UMass-Lowell before returning to the Cross Insurance Center on February 16^th to take on UAlbany in Bangor.