Sigi Koizar (#42 in white) shown here in an earlier game this season against Vermont led the Maine Black Bears to a victory in Hartford Wednesday night. Photo by Anthony Delmonaco.
HARTFORD, CONN- If the saying of defense wins championships is true, the Maine Black Bears don’t need to change much as playoff time approaches. Maine held another opponent under 50 points Wednesday night to get past a pesky Hartford Hawks team 50-44 at Chase Arena.
Maine held Hartford to just 34% shooting but the Hawks outrebounded the Black Bears 35-27 including 15-8 on the offensive glass outscoring Maine 11-4 on second chance points. Hartford also used a strong game for their bench outscoring Maine in that department as well 26-4. But the Bears won the battle on the scoreboard where it counts.
Despite shooting 44% in the game Maine struggled in the first half leading just 24-15 at halftime. Hartford was able to trim one point off that lead in the third quarter to make it 39-31 headed to the fourth. Maine would grab their largest lead at 48-37 with 3:15 remaining only to see the Hawks run off seven straight points to cut the lead to 48-44 with under a minute left. Sigi Koizar nailed a jump shot to help seal the six point win, the 11th straight victory for Maine.
Janelle Harrison was the leading scorer for Hartford, who drops to 11-17 overall and 7-8 in America East. Harrison had 10 points and six rebounds while Kelly Douglass had nine points.
For Maine, who improves to 23-7 and 14-1 in the conference, Koizar led the way with 15 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals. Mikaela Gustafsson had 11 points and five rebounds. Bella Swan had eight points and six rebounds while Sophie Weckstrom also chipped in with eight points.
Maine now returns home for senior day on Saturday, February 27th at 1 p.m. when they host Binghamton for their last regular season home game at the Cross Insurance Center. With a victory Maine will guarantee at least a share of the America East regular season title.
