Men's Basketball Drops Season Opener 77-63 to University of Maine at Presque Isle
The men's basketball team fell to the University of Maine at Presque Isle in their 2026-27 season opener 77-63 behind strong shooting from the Owls.
The game had an aggressive start, with both teams seemingly ready for the new season to begin. The Bulldogs brought in 17 new faces, most from Junior colleges or community colleges.
The entire starting lineup were newcomers except for Izayah Porter who is starting his second year at Dean. The other four (Amari Moses, Kymel Williams, Devin Bowers, and Alex Ball) were donning the Bulldogs jersey for the first time.
Porter picked up Dean's first points of the game to tie up at the game at two after Yuki Ishibashi got things started for the Owls at the free throw line.
It looked to be an evenly matched game at the beginning, but the Owls soon took a 12-4 early lead, shooting beyond the arc from Sam Williams.
The Owls kept scoring while Dean was at a standstill, bringing their lead to 16-4 after five minutes of play in the first half. Bulldogs Head Coach Joe Cabral made adjustments by subbing in Thomas Faucett and Payton Rhineheart for added shooting and defense.
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Faucett added gritty defense along with rebounding for the Bulldogs, while Rhineheart immediately made an impact by hitting a three. Back-to-back layups from Porter cut the lead down to 21-16 with 12 minutes remaining.
Williams added two more threes to improve to 4-5 from downtown. Dean was outscored 10-24 in the remaining minutes of the first half and were faced with a 45-26 deficit coming out of the half.
Williams led the way for both teams with 15 points and Tyson Engent had nine for the Owls as well. Tre'Von Coney had eight for the Bulldogs off the bench, leading them as their starters were struggling to score.
The Owls took advantage of their lead and grew it, while the Bulldogs had to try and catch up, but were missing the good shots they were getting.
Presque Isle sustained their 20+ point lead four minutes into the second half until Donnary Fontenot hit a jumper to cut it to 18. The closest Dean got was within 12, but they were not able to bring the deficit down to single digits.
Dean didn't hit their first three pointer until the second half and they only ended up going 3-10 from three. In the first half, they went 13-37 (35%) from the field and then improved to 15-36 (42%) in the second half.
The consistent and balanced scoring from the Owls proved to be too much for the Bulldogs to overcome as they ended up losing by 14 points after trying to get back some points from intentionally fouling the Owls.
Dean falls to 0-1 on the season, but they have to quickly bounce back as they finish the other end of a double header on Sunday at 2 PM against University of Maine Augusta.
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