The University of Maine women’s basketball team has gotten off to a slow start this season and most recently dropped a pair of contests against the University of Massachusetts and Sacred Heart University last week. The Black Bears fall to 3-3 on the season.
Minutemen take down UMaine
Despite a quick start Wednesday night, the Black Bears fell 68-60 to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The Minutemen got their first win of the season, moving to 1-2.
The Minutemen shot an efficient 57.1 percent from the field, while the Black Bears got 39 percent with 17 more shots.
Third-year forward Bella Swan got the UMaine offense going, scoring four early points to give the Black Bears a 9-2 lead.
The Minutemen responded when first-year guard Leah McDerment hit a momentum changing layup and was fouled on the play. McDerment’s and-one start jump-started the UMass offense,
UMass went on a 12-0 run after the and-one to take a 21-13 advantage. Third-year UMaine guard Sophie Weckstrom stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer at the 8:52 mark. Weckstrom struggled from the field, going 2-10 for six points and a team-high four assists.
UMaine shot a season-high 36 three-pointers, connecting on 11 of them.
The Black Bears kept the score close for the rest of the first frame and cut the lead down to four when second-year guard Sigi Koizar nailed a three pointer to make it 29-25. Second-year UMass guard responded seconds later with a three of her own to send UMass into halftime up by seven points.
Koizar led the Black Bears with eight of her 12 points coming in the first half for her third double-digit scoring game in a row.
The Minutemen started out the second half with six quick points before the Black Bears could score. They continued to extend their lead, reaching a game-high 16-point lead at 5:38, 58-52.
Fourth-year UMass forward Kim Pierre-Louis and Rashida Timbilla were the stars of the game for the Minutemen. Pierre-Louis dropped a game-high 19 points and pulled down seven boards while Timbilla chipped in 14 points on six of eight shooting and grabbed five rebounds with six assists.
The Minutemen dominated down low, outscoring the Black Bears 34-16 in the paint while pulling down 32 rebounds to the Black Bears’ 24.
The Black Bears pulled within eight points with first-year Christiana Gerostergiou hit a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left but it was not enough.
Sacred Heart outlasts Black Bears
Third-year center Anna Heise had her most successful game of the season, scoring 17 points and grabbing three rebounds Sunday in a tight 59-58 loss to Sacred Heart Sunday afternoon.
Redshirt junior forward Hannah Kimmel led all offensive players with 28 points, six boards and five assists in the winning effort. Kimmel used a combination of deadly outside shooting, 5-10 from beyond the arc, and dominant post play to stymie the Black Bear defense.
Both teams traded leads for much of the first half, with neither side able to muster more than a four point lead until there were three minutes left to play in the frame.
Third-year sharpshooter Lauren Bodine nailed back-to-back three pointers to put UMaine up 28-21 in the first half. Bodine finished with 12 points on 4-14 shooting and a pair of assists.
Sacred Heart finished the first half with a 6-0 run that was punctuated with a three from Kimmel, closing the Black Bear lead to 28-27 at halftime.
Kimmel picked up where she left off in the second half, scoring five points on a 9-0 Sacred Heart run to take a 36-29 lead.
Heise got the Black Bears back into the game, hitting a free throw and following it up by a 3-pointer. Bodine knocked down a transition three just 1 minute later, cutting the Sacred Heart lead to one with 12 minutes left to play.
“We’ve certainly felt that she has been capable of having this kind of game for quite a while,” UMaine head coach Richard Barron said.
Sacred Heart extended their lead to five with 7 minutes left on a pair of Kimmel free throws. Koizar took control shortly after, stepping up and nailing a 3-pointer and driving past her defender for a layup to tie it up at 50-50. Koizar had another strong showing, scoring nine points and bringing down four rebounds.
Sacred Heart was down 59-58 with 5 seconds left when Kimmel was left alone under the basket, where she converted a layup to take the lead.
The Black Bears called a timeout and inbounded it to Koizar near half court, who drove past three defenders and got a good look at a layup that rolled off of the rim as time expired.
UMaine will take to the court when they host Brown University Nov. 28 at 3 p.m.