ORONO — University of Maine men’s basketball coach Chris Markwood knows his team is a work in progress. With 11 newcomers to the roster, the Black Bears are using these early season non-conference games to figure out where they stand before America East games begin in January.

Sunday afternoon’s 70-64 loss to Quinnipiac in the Pit showed glimpses of what the Black Bears (0-4) do well, and wide looks at what they need to improve before those conference games hit the schedule.

With 14 1/2 minutes left in the game, Maine led 44-32, and the Black Bears were playing the kind of defense Markwood demands. To that point, Maine turned defense into offense, scoring 14 points off Bobcats turnovers.

Even with the graduation of guard Kellen Tynes, the three-time America East Defensive Player of the Year, the Black Bears defensive effort hadn’t taken a step back.

With just one of the team’s nine steals coming over the final 14 minutes, though, Maine’s offense began to sputter. The Black Bears scored no points off turnovers the rest of the way, and it was a factor in Quinnipiac’s second-half rally. The Bobcats went on a 14-0 run to take the lead with just under 10 minutes to play.

The inconsistency was expected, Markwood said.

“We’re trying to figure out, with 11 new guys, how you’re going to play,” he said. “Who’s going to score the ball? Everybody’s kind of getting their roles. We need a stretch where we have guys healthy and we can practice and we can figure out how guys are going attack.

“We’re playing really good competition. There’s no easy ones. We’re kind of going to need to figure it out in the fire.”

By dominating the glass and outrebounding Maine 47-32, the Bobcats scored 18 second chance points to the Black Bears’ two.

“It’s all about just being tough down there, man,” said TJ Biel, a grad transfer from Southeast Missouri State who led Maine with 17 points, including 3 for 4 from 3-point range. “But you’ve just got to dig in and box out.”

Newport native Ace Flagg was the first Black Bear off the bench, as he’s been throughout the early portion of the season. While Flagg didn’t score, he grabbed six rebounds with two assists and a steal.

“The ball didn’t go in for him today, but he’s given us a good offensive burst every game but today. We trust him on the defensive side. He’s coming along. He’s going to be a big part of it for us. But he is a freshman. He’s going to go through his ups and downs,” Markwood said. “That’s how you get better. Early on in the season, it might cost you here and there, but that’s what’s going to propel them to help you win big games when it matters.”

Late in the game, Flagg was called for a phantom foul that, with all the reliance on replay, should have been overturned. With under a minute to play, Quinnipiac’s Keith McKnight took a long baseline inbounds pass and appeared poised for an uncontested breakaway layup. McKnight slipped as he went up for the shot, though.

An official trailing the play near midcourt called Flagg for the foul. Flagg trailed McKnight by at least five feet, and was nowhere in position to breathe on McKnight, much less foul him. When the replay was shown on the Pit’s Jumbotron, most of the 1,380 in attendance let the official know he missed it.

Markwood said foul calls are not reviewable, and he wasn’t sure why either of the other officials, who had a clearer view of the play, did not overrule the call.

“I think everybody saw. The ref knew it too, I think, after he blew the call. He made it from the backcourt, which in my opinion is a no-no. But that’s basketball. There’s going to be some missed calls, some bad calls,” Markwood said.

The missed call, or made up out of thin air call, as it were, wasn’t why the Black Bears lost. Inconsistent play was. Maine held the Bobcats to 36.5% shooting from the floor, and that’s something Markwood knows he can build on.

Doing a better job on the boards and finding consistent scoring, that’s what will turn the Black Bears into the America East contender they expect to be.