ORONO – The University of Maine men’s basketball team christened Skip Chappelle Court in the Memorial Gym in impressive fashion on Sunday afternoon, breaking the game open with a 19-3 run early in the second half to beat the youthful Holy Cross Crusaders 80-55.
The name will also be carried over to the new Morse Arena which is scheduled to open for the 2027-28 season.
UMaine improved to 3-3 while Holy Cross, which started three freshmen, a sophomore and a senior, fell to 4-3 after having its four-game winning streak snapped.
The game was part of a doubleheader with the UMaine women taking on Quinnipiac in the nightcap.
UMaine Sports Hall of Famer Chappelle, a three-time Yankee Conference scoring leader and All-YC first team selection who went on to serve as the UMaine men’s head basketball coach for 17 seasons, was honored at halftime of the men’s game when it was announced that the court would be named after him.
The Old Town native was the program’s only Little All-American (1961).
The video board played messages from two of his former players, current Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle and Pacers assistant Jim Boylen.
Boylen talked about how much he learned from Chappelle and Carlisle called him the greatest UMaine men’s basketball player of all time.
Chappelle was the first UMaine men’s basketball player to have his number retired (34).
The current Black Bears honored him with an exceptional defensive performance, limiting a good-shooting Holy Cross team to a 35 percent showing from the floor including a dismal 15 percent performance beyond the 3-point arc.
The Crusaders came into the game shooting 45.6 percent from the floor and 41 percent from long range.
UMaine senior forward and Appalachian State transfer Christopher Mantis came off the bench to pour in a game-high 19 points on 7-for-9 shooting from the floor including a 5-for-7 showing from long range.
He also grabbed five rebounds.
Senior guard Quion Burns had 16 points, eight rebounds and three assists; senior guard A.J. Lopez contributed 12 points and two assists and graduate student guard Kellen Tynes produced 12 points, including the 1,000th of his career, along with a game-high seven assists. He also grabbed five rebounds.
Junior guard Jayden Clayton chipped in with six points, seven rebounds and four assists,’
Holy Cross received 12 points from sophomore guard DeAndre Williams, 11 points and five rebounds from sophomore guard/forward Joe Nugent and 10 points from senior forward Caleb Kenney. Freshman forward Aidan Richard had eight points and six rebounds.
The Black Bears built a 35-26 halftime lead behind Burns’ nine points and six apiece from Tynes and Mantis.
Both teams struggled mightily behind the three-point arc in the first half as UMaine went just 2-for-12 and Holy Cross was even worse, going 1-for-10.
The Black Bears outscored Holy Cross 19-11 over the final 10 minutes of the half.
Kenney had eight first-half points to lead the Crusaders but he was limited to just 11:01 of playing time due to foul trouble. Nugent had seven points.
UMaine went 19-for-32 from the floor in the second half including a 7-for-12 showing beyond the arc.
Lopez had eight points during the decisive 19-3 run in the second half and Mantis had a pair of threes as the Black Bears extended a 39-32 lead into a comfortable 58-35 advantage.
“It was a great team effort on both sides of the basketball,” said UMaine head coach Chris Markwood. “Holy Cross has been playing great basketball for the last couple of weeks, really since the start of the season.
“It was a really good challenge. Our guys stepped up to the plate and held them to 35 percent from the floor and 15 percent from the three. That’s a really good shooting team so it started there. Offensively, we started reaping the benefits from our hard work.
“We finally started seeing the ball go through the net and got our juice going there and shared the ball really well,” he added.
Holy Cross entered the game averaging 75.8 points per game.
“For us, it always starts with defense,” said Tynes, a two-time America East Defensive Player of the Year. “We’ve been a good defensive team the past couple of years. We held a really good shooting team to a low percentage from the three and even from the field.”
“Coming off two losses, we had to buckle down on defense and lock in,” said Lopez.
Tynes said reaching the 1,000-point plateau “means a lot to me.
“Reflecting on my journey and where I came from. To do it in a Black Bear uniform in a place I call home means a lot. I’m grateful to my teammates and coaches for putting me in position to do it,” added the Dartmouth, Nova Scotia native and Montana State transfer.
UMaine will play three games in three days at the University of Pennsylvania next weekend as the Black Bears will face Elon on Friday at 4:30, Pennsylvania on Saturday at noon and Navy on Sunday at 6.
Holy Cross will hit the road for a 4 p.m. game at the University of Virginia on Friday.
