Box Score WATERVILLE, ME --- Thomas College (0-1) saw its furious comeback attempt held off by clutch free-throw shooting down the stretch as Plymouth State University (1-0) captured a 77-71 win Friday night at Larry Mahaney Gymnasium in the men's basketball season opener for both schools.
Down as many as 10 points in the second half, the Terriers cut the lead to two points at 71-69 with a 3-pointer by junior Tyheem Simon (Far Rockaway, NY) with 55 seconds left. The Panthers, however, made good on six of six free throw attempts in the final minute to put the game away.
Simon scored a team-high 16 points off the bench to lead Thomas. Senior Levi Barnes (Skowhegan, ME) added 14 points, while Mike Akanji (Lincoln, RI) and Carlos Gonzalez (Kennebunk, ME) added 10 points apiece. Gonzalez also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds.
Curtis Arsenault led a physical Plymouth State with 19 points, six rebounds, five steals and three assists. Jack Preston added 18 points and six boards, while Uche Nwokeji had 15 points and a game-high eight rebounds.
Thomas worked with a lead for most of the first half as Akanji kicked off his senior season with a 3-pointer on the Terriers' first possession. Plymouth State enjoyed a short lead at 6-5 on a Jack Preston trey, but Akanji stole the lead back for Thomas with his second triple of the game.
Five points by Gonzalez sandwiched around a Preston layup pushed the Terrier lead to 15-11 but the Panthers battled back to tie the game as Mike Osgood hit a layup then blocked Tyheem Simon's shot at the other end. Arsenault cashed in on the ensuing fast-break opportunity to knot the score at 15-15.
After Mike Osgood's layup at the 11:31 mark gave the Panthers a 17-15 lead, the Terriers scored 14 of the next 17 points over the next six minutes to take a 29-20 lead. Simon tallied eight of his team-high 16 points during that stretch while Nolan Smeeton added a pair of layups and Akanji had a bucket.
The final 5:16 of the first half belonged to Plymouth State, outscoring Thomas by an 11-3 margin. Nathan Clarke capped the run with a 3-pointer with 1:41 to play. The Terriers took a 32-31 lead into the locker room at halftime courtesy of three Simon free throws down the stretch.
Arsenault hit a jumper with 15:23 to play, knotting the score at 41-all and setting the Panthers off on a 12-0 run over the next 5:10 as they built a 10-point lead. Dayne Savage (Caribou, ME) hit a jumper to cut the lead to eight, but Preston answered with a jumper of his own to set the margin back at 10 with exactly 10:00 to play.
Paced by seven points from Barnes and five each from Simon, Savage and Eli Huggins (Bronx, NY), the Terriers whittled away at the lead over the next nine minutes, getting within two points on three separate occasions, but the Panthers used solid free throw shooting to keep Thomas at bay.
Plymouth State held slight edges in rebounds (35-32), assists (13-10) and turnovers (18-20), and the Panthers had advantages of in second-chance points (19-13) and points in the paint (36-32), though the Terriers bench outscored their PSU counterparts 35-9.
Thomas returns to the court on Tuesday evening when the Terriers travel to Dudley, Massachusetts to face Nichols in a nonconference game. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
