CMCC Dominates 1st Half, Beats ACPHS 89-72

Auburn, ME – CMCC Men's Basketball rounded out its 2024-25 regular season with an emphatic 89-72 win over the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The Mustangs blitzed the Panthers for a 44-18 lead in the first half, before cruising to victory in the second with every dressed player seeing the court. Central Maine heads into the postseason as the #2 seed in the upcoming YSCC Tournament.

Four players finished in double figures. Freshman forward Khaden Moore once again led the way in scoring with a team-high 19 points and eight rebounds. Captains Wyatt Hathaway and Da'Vohn Jonas went for 13 and 10 respectively while Will Duke had 12 points on a 5-for-6 shooting performance. The hosts shot 46.6% from the field including 11-for-23 from beyond the arc.

Jonas scored off the opening tip to set the tone, and the defense hassled ACPHS into missed shots and turnovers in the early minutes. By the time Ben Francis laid the ball up and in with seven minutes gone, the Mustangs had a 19-2 lead. Central Maine led by as many as 30 through the opening 20 minutes and got points from nine different players before the halftime break.

Head coach Dave Gonyea used all 14 players at his disposal in the second half for the team's final game before the beginning of postseason play. The Panthers stayed with the Mustangs, keeping the lead from growing any larger and adding 15 points in the last four minutes. Albany ended the half with 54 points, led by Brett Richards who scored a game-high 23.

But the Mustangs had too large of a lead to be troubled. Sophomore Hunter Brackett put the icing on the cake with a three-pointer with 1:48 remaining, as CMCC avenged its defeat on the road to ACPHS back in November.

"I'm very pleased with the team effort today," said coach Gonyea. "We ran more than ten guys in and out and changed it up a little bit with different lineups out there. I'm happy with how the gelled together and beat a good Albany team."

The win moves Central Maine to 16-12 overall and snaps a three-game losing streak, the team's longest since the beginning of the season. The Mustangs finished YSCC play with a 12-4 record, winning the tiebreaker against VTSU-Randolph to claim the #2 seed in the conference tournament. They'll await the result of Albany's game against Paul Smith's College on Wednesday, February 19^th to see who they face in the quarterfinals.