PORTLAND- Senior guard Sigi Koizar scored 11 of her game high 21 points in the fourth quarter Sunday afternoon all from the foul line, to lead the Maine womens basketball team to a 61-52 upset victory over top seeded New Hampshire in the America East Semifinals at Cross Insurance Arena.
With the win Maine now advances to the America East championship game to play Albany next Friday at 4:30 p.m. Albany advanced in Sundays second semifinal, 67-65 over Hartford. The Great Danes are the higher seed, so will host the game at Albany, NY on their home court.
In Sundays first semifinal game, Maine started out strong building as much as a seven point lead in the first quarter, after scoring the first six points of the game.
Maine (18-15), led the majority of the first half and never trailed and took a 23-17 lead into halftime.
UNH took their first lead of the game in the third quarter at 28-27, as Olivia Healy knocked down a three-pointer, part of a 7-0 Wildcats run. Maine would fight back to grab leads of two and three points, but UNH took a lead of 37-36 into the fourth and final quarter.
Maine exploded early in the fourth quarter, going on a 13-2 run to take their biggest lead at 49-39. A three-pointer from UNH guard Brittni Lai would cut the lead to 50-46, and later would cut it to three points with under a minute to play. But Maine ended the game on a 6-0 run, with Blanca Millan nailing four free throws and Koizar with a pair as well. Koizar shot 11-16 from the line in the quarter, and Millan also knocked down 6-6 from the charity stripe in the quarter, to help knock off their rivals and send the Bears to the title game next week. For the game Maine was 27-34 from the line. Maine shot just 36 percent from the floor, while UNH was 31 percent. UNH turned the ball over 19 times, compared to just nine for Maine. “I just can’t say enough about these kids. I know I use those words alot, but I am so proud of them. We had an hour, maybe hour 15 minute shoot around this morning, watched some film last night. We put in a game plan that we wanted to execute, and they did it to a T. They were just incredible. And I really think they made New Hampshire work for everything they got”, said Maine interim coach Amy Vachon.
Along with her game high in points, Koizar added four rebounds, four assists, and two steals. When Koizar was asked when does she feel they could knock off UNH, she explained, “After the first time we played them. We went back and watched film after the first game cause we didn’t play very well, and missed alot of layups and made defensive mistakes. And then we lost again in the second game. So coming in to today we went back and watched the second game and the first game, and figured it out”. Millan also chipped in with 11 points, seven rebounds, one blocked shot, and one steal.
For UNH (26-5), Lai led the way with 17 points. Carlie Pogue had 13 points, 10 rebounds, and a blocked shot. The Wildcats had entered the tournament as the top seed and had beaten the fourth seeded Black Bears twice in the regular season. UNH had only lost once in their last 21 games before Sunday, including a 15-1 regular season league record. “Obviously a tough day for us. Kudos to Maine they had a great game plan, tried to pack it in and take Carlie (Pogue) away, and force us to take outside shots. I thought defensively they were really tough”, said UNH head coach Maureen Magarity.
New Hampshire forward Kat Fogarty added, “Like coach told us, WNIT is a big deal. We may not of got what we wanted, but I think we have a good chance to make a run in the tournament. Luckily, that means I will get to play a few more games with Kristen (Anderson), get everyone ready, and just keep doing what we have been doing”.
The America East championship game will be shown nationally on ESPN 2.
UME (18-15) 13 10 13 25- 61
UNH (26-5) 9 8 20 15- 52
