By Anthony Panciocco
It was feast or famine for the University of Maine women’s basketball team over the past week. The Black Bears captured their third straight conference win Tuesday night against the University of Vermont before getting a taste of their own medicine when they took on the University at Albany Saturday afternoon.
UMaine remains an even 9-9 on the year. Their 3-2 mark in conference play has them sitting in the fourth spot in America East behind the 4-0 Great Danes, the 3-0 University of New Hampshire Wildcats and 3-1 Stony Brook University.
The Black Bears get back into action when they visit the University of Massachusetts-Lowell Riverhawks Jan. 23 at 7 p.m.
Wood, Wallace lead Black Bears to rout of rival Catamounts 92-62
BANGOR, Maine — University of Maine sophomore forward Liz Wood scored the 500th point of her young career Tuesday night, leading the women’s basketball team to a 92-62 blowout of the University of Vermont Catamounts at the Cross Insurance Center.
The victory was the third straight conference win for UMaine, marking their first three-game winning streak since the 2004-2005 season. All three games were won by 12 or more points.
The Catamounts bounced back to beat the University of Maryland-Baltimore County to improve their record to 5-12 overall and an even 2-2 in America East play.
Wood led UMaine with 22 points on the night to go along with six rebounds. Senior guard Ashleigh Roberts added 16 points, five boards and four assists.
The Black Bears wasted no time early on, getting out to an early 9-0 lead led by four points from Roberts and three from Wood, who made the first six shots she took. They continued their pressure after a Vermont timeout, bringing their lead to 15-5 just 4:17 into the game.
“Our coach has been talking about coming out and being the aggressor,” Wood said. “We have had a bad habit of coming out and kind of feeling our way into the game, but today I think we did a good job of coming out early and establishing ourselves.”
The Catamounts rallied back to cut the lead to six, but the Black Bears were able to keep them at arm’s length until the end of the half. Freshman guard Kylie Butler led the Catamounts on a 9-3 run to bring the score to 35-28, but it would not last long. The Black Bears went on a 13-7 run of their own, amassing a commanding 48-35 lead going into halftime.
Vermont, the best offensive rebounding team in the America East Conference, led 25-17 in rebounding through the first half.
Vermont freshman guard Jordan Eisler scored four of the Catamounts’ first six points to get her team off to a fast start in the second, but was matched shot for shot by the Black Bears. Though they were able to get things going early in the half, the Catamounts could not gain any ground on the Black Bears and failed to cut the lead to less than 10.
UMaine sophomore sharpshooter Chantel Charles, freshman guard Sigi Koizar and sophomore center Anna Heise all pitched in to extend the second-half lead. Down the stretch, redshirt senior Cherrish Wallace dazzled with several backdoor passes on fast breaks that led to easy layups. She finished the night with a double-double consisting of 13 points and 10 assists.
“By now my style is running — I like to run a little bit so now that those guys have been playing with me they see me running, and they’re doing the same thing. It’s a good feeling when I can see them cutting to the basket,” Wallace said.
The game marked just the fourth of Wallace’s career at UMaine. She graduated from Baylor University in 2012, where a serious leg injury limited her to just one season of play. She was cleared to play over winter break and has wasted no time making an impact, averaging 10 points per game.
“Basketball-wise it has been a different kind of mindset getting back into things, but these girls have been great helping me get used to everything here,” said the transfer. “I’ve been playing with them, and I’ve been here since September so I’ve had to get adjusted fast, but they have done a good job of helping me and taking me in.”
The Black Bears had a huge second half on the glass led by Wood and Roberts, finishing the game with 36 boards to Vermont’s 37 after trailing 25-17 at the half.
“We did not feel like we were giving the rebounding effort we needed to, and we really challenged the post players at halftime and I felt they really did [respond],” UMaine head coach Richard Barron said. “Mikaela [Gustafsson] and Anna [Heise] did a much better job.”
Vermont struggled shooting the ball, hitting on just 39.1 percent of their shots from the field to the Black Bears’ efficient 53.6 percent clip.
The Catamounts travel to Durham, N.H. on Monday to take on the University of New Hampshire Wildcats in another conference tilt.
Roberts’ 22 not enough as Black Bears fall to conference-leading Albany
A second-half surge from the University at Albany proved to be too much for the visiting Black Bears Saturday afternoon, using a 21-6 run after the break to coast to an 84-56 win.
The Great Danes remain undefeated in America East play at 4-0 with a 15-3 record overall. Roberts paced the Black Bears with 22 points on 2-4 shooting from downtown.
The Black Bears lead the all-time series between the two teams with a record of 16-11, but Saturday’s loss marks their eighth straight defeat against Albany. The Great Danes snapped UMaine’s three-game winning streak and extended their own winning streak to five.
Albany got out to an early five-point lead, but UMaine sophomore guard Lauren Boding hit a long three-pointer to tie things up at five. Bodine was a large part of UMaine’s success in the first half, going 3-4 from beyond the arc. She finished the game with 9 points and three boards.
Sophomore forward Shereesha Richards led the Great Danes on a 10-2 run halfway through the first frame. Richards scored 9 of her 19 points in the first half. She was the driving force behind Albany’s success in the contest, grabbing 11 rebounds and going 9-15 from the field.
Roberts hit a 3-pointer to stop the bleeding and Wallace hit a jumper to end the half down 26-30. Wallace went on to dish out four assists and grab three boards to add to her 7 points. At the half, the two teams looked poised for a hard-fought second half that would not come to fruition.
Albany started off the second half on a strong 21-6 run that put them up 51-32. Junior forward Sarah Royals had a stellar second half, scoring 16 of her 23 points on a perfect 5-5 shooting display.
The Black Bears kept at it, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers in the last 10 minutes before Albany’s 11-3 run sealed it.
Rebounding was a big issue for the Black Bears as they were outdone on the boards 38-25, including a 13-7 disparity on the offensive glass. The Great Danes, who rank first in rebounding margin in America East, were able to capitalize on their 13 offensive rebounds, scoring 16 second-chance points to UMaine’s 6. Richards led the Great Danes with 11 rebounds.
The Black Bears’ 18 turnovers stalled their offense and led to 23 Albany points at the other end, most of which occurred in the first half. They also struggled shooting the ball, shooting just 38.3 percent to Albany’s 56.7.
The Great Danes put their perfect conference record on the line when they travel to take on Binghamton University Monday at 7:30 p.m.