Albany

A pack of elementary-school kids provided some halftime revelry Wednesday night, playing a quick basketball game to entertain the SEFCU Arena patrons.

The University at Albany had to do something to keep the patrons interested. What they saw of the home team in its America East matchup against UMass-Lowell will go down as one of the biggest one-night flops in the school's Division I history.

Lowell made 58 percent of its field-goal attempts, outrebounded UAlbany 45-23 and thoroughly dominated from the start, handing the Great Danes their most lopsided home loss in their Division I history, 86-54.

"I don't think I've ever had a team, even when we played Kansas, Duke, (North) Carolina, that's gotten outrebounded by 22," said Will Brown, in his 19th season as UAlbany head coach.

The 32 points was the biggest differential in a UAlbany defeat since an 89-56 spanking at Pittsburgh in the 2011-12 season opener. It matched a 77-45 game Feb. 26, 2004, at Vermont as the largest America East loss since the Danes joined the conference in 2001, two years after they became a Division I program.

"It's a bad loss for us," said Ahmad Clark, UAlbany's leading scorer who was held pointless the first 15 minutes of the game. "We've just got to put this one behind us and keep working."

How bad was it? The Danes (8-17, 3-7 America East), who led for only 51 seconds, were 4-for-26 from 3-point land, at 15 percent easily their worst of the season. Ranked 64th of 351 nationally in free-throw percentage, UAlbany made only 4 of 10 foul shots.

Clark and Cameron Healy, the Danes' top two scorers, shot a combined 3-for-19 from 3-point range.

"We can't have both of them struggle shooting the ball on the same night," Brown said.

Despite all of that, UAlbany did flirt with a comeback to start the second half. Down 42-25 at the break, Clark had four points, two steals and two assists to ignite a 9-0 UAlbany start.

Alex Rivera squashed the run with a 3-pointer, and Josh Gantz hit a pair of 3s 24 seconds apart to make it a 16-point game.

"I was concerned," Lowell coach Pat Duquette said. "We saw last night, Duke-Louisville. It can happen on any stage. The game has ebbs and flows, and it changes fast, and kids' confidence changes fast."

The second-ranked Blue Devils overcame a 23-point deficit in the final 10 minutes Tuesday night to win at Louisville. About the only correlation between Duke and UAlbany is that both start four freshmen.

"We've been coming here for a few years now, and we've been on the other side of a few of these games and gotten our butts kicked," said Duquette, who was 0-5 in his coaching career at UAlbany. "It's great to get a win."

The Danes were beaten twice earlier this season by 29 points or more, against Providence and Vermont, but this one proved to be more of a surprise.

Lowell (14-12, 6-5) came into the game in fifth place, 1½ games ahead of No. 6 UAlbany. The River Hawks are highest-scoring team in the America East but also the most generous.

The teams had been virtually even in rebounding margin — Lowell was fourth (-0.2), UAlbany fifth (-0.3). Christian Lutete proved to be chairman of the boards with 11 rebounds to go with his game-high 20 points.

"They outcompeted us," said Adam Lulka, who led the Danes with 16 points and six rebounds. "The whole team was crashing the glass hard. They were consistent on the glass, and they put more effort in."

UAlbany, which had been improving defensively, didn't have it at either end of the court.

"We took steps back in regard to our defense," Brown said. "We had been guarding well."

Combined with accuracy that was surpassed by the halftime kids — take away Lulka's 8-for-11 and the Danes made 15 of 50 shots — the outcome was predictable.

"We had been playing pretty good basketball for a couple of weeks," Brown said. "I'm going to chalk this up to a horrible outing. It happens. It's unfortunate, regardless of the score."

pdougherty@timesunion.com • 518-454-5416 • @Pete_Dougherty