BANGOR, Me- After a low scoring first half where they shot just 28 percent from the floor, the University of Maine women’s basketball team picked it up in the second half to win their fifth straight game 66-45 over Vermont at the Cross Insurance Center in America East action Wednesday night.
Vermont (9-13, 5-5 America East) got out to an early 7-2 lead, before two baskets by Tanesha Sutton, a three pointer by Dor Saar, and a basket by Blanca Millan sparked a 9-0 Bears run to put Maine up 11-7. The hosts led 16-15 after one quarter. The second quarter turned into a defensive battle. No points were scored for the first 5:40 until Parise Rossignol hit a three pointer for Maine. A total of 11 points in the second were scored, with the Bears scoring seven of those for a 23-19 halftime lead.
Maine (16-7, 9-1) really turned things up out of the halftime locker room. Sparked by 10 points by Millan, the Bears turned a 25-22 lead into a 16 point advantage with a 15-2 run to make it 40-24, and had a 16 point lead heading to the final quarter by making five 3-pointers in the stanza. Maine continued to pour it on in the final quarter, getting back to back three pointers from Millan and Rossignol to start a 10-0 run to open what was the biggest lead of the game at 58-32. Vermont only could get as close as 19 the rest of the way as Maine stayed in a first place conference tie with Hartford. Maine coach Amy Vachon said, “Happy with our team. That second quarter was tough offensively we couldn’t get the ball to go in the net. I thought defensively we did a good job, we switched up our defense and went man and I thought our kids did a really good job with that. We talked about at halftime just being confident in shooting the ball. I thought Fanny (Wadling) started us off really well with that first shot and everyone kinda fed off that. Vermont is a good team, they have alot of height and do alot of things really well so proud of our kids for coming out with the win.”
Maine ended up shooting 16-25 from the floor in the second half, including 8-10 from the three point arc (11-19 from three point in the game), and ended up with a 43 percent mark for the game from the floor. The visitors from Vermont shot 33 percent from the floor in the game, but turned the ball over 19 times compared to just seven for Maine. Millan led the Bears with 22 points and six rebounds. Millan started the game 2-13 from the field, but was 6-7 in the second half. “I kept shooting. I mean when you have your entire team telling you to keep shooting and it is gonna fall in, that’s what you do basically”, said Millan. Rossignol had 14 points, three assists, and three steals including 4-5 from three point range. Sutton finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, five assists, and two steals. Saar chipped in nine points and six assists. Josie Larkins led the Catamounts with 19 points and six rebounds, including 5-11 from three point range. Vermont interim head coach Alisa Kresge said, “First half was alot of defense on both sides. That was our game plan, we had to make them take tough shots. Everytime we didn’t take away what they do, they capitalized off it in first half. Then in the second half you see what happened, turnovers turned into threes and we couldn’t set up our defense, and mental lapses and that was the game they shot the heck out of the ball in the second half”.
Maine is on the road Saturday trying to make it six straight wins when they travel to Maryland to face UMBC at 1 pm.
