Maine fought off a tough first half battle from the UMass-Lowell Riverhawks Wednesday night, pulling away in the second half for their 10th straight victory with a 60-41 America East women’s basketball win at Tsongas Arena at Lowell, Massachusetts.
The hosts from UMass-Lowell (7-22, 3-13 America East) scored the first four points of the opening quarter and got off to a good start, and led 18-13 after the first 10 minutes. Maine outscored the River Hawks 18-5 in the second quarter however to take a 30-28 lead at the break, despite shooting only 37 percent compared to over 50 percent for UML. Maine (21-7, 14-1) broke it open in the third quarter, using a 15-1 run to open the gap to 45-29 capped off by a three pointer by Dor Saar. The Bears led by as many as 17, and took a 48-33 lead into the fourth quarter. The visitors took the biggest lead of the game when Blanca Millan knocked down a three to put them up 21 with 4:04 left to play, and Lowell never got closer than the 15 point deficit they faced after the third quarter.
Tanesha Sutton had a game high 19 points to lead Maine. She recorded the double double by also adding 10 rebounds and three assists. Saar had 12 points and three assists, with all 12 points coming on 4 three-pointers. Millan added eight points and three assists. Brianna Rudolph had 14 points, six rebounds, and two steals for UMass-Lowell. Oda Shackelford also chipped in 10 points, six rebounds, and two steals. UML played their final game of the season and will await the results of this weekends remaining America East games to find out their postseason fate. The River Hawks currently sit in the 8th and final playoff spot.
Maine has clinched the overall #1 seed for the America East playoffs, and has a chance if they avoid a loss, to host the entire tournament. The Bears play their regular season finale at Binghamton Saturday afternoon, and will know by the end of Saturday whom they face in the quarterfinal round in Bangor next Wednesday, March 6 at 7 pm.
In the men’s game at Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Christian Lutete had a game high 21 points and Joey Glynn scored all of his 10 points in the second half, as the UMass-Lowell Riverhawks took down the Maine Black Bears 70-61.
A back and forth first half had 10 lead changes and five ties with neither team leading by more than five points. The fifth time it was tied was at halftime at 31-31. Maine took an early three point lead in the second half as the game would remain tight. The Black Bears though would take their final lead at 51-49 on a dunk by Vincent Eze with 12:10 to play. Glynn put the Riverhawks back on top on a layup with 9:33 left, and UMass-Lowell would eventually build that lead to 10 at 65-55 with a 14-4 run. Maine could only get as close as five with 2:20 left, but got no closer.
Along with Lutete, UMass-Lowell also got 14 points from Obadiah Noel and 12 from Shawn Jones. Jones also grabbed six rebounds, while Glynn grabbed seven in his big second half. Eze led Maine with 15 points and five rebounds. Dennis Ashley added 11 points, while Vilgot Larsson chipped in 10. The Black Bears were without Andrew Fleming, who is lost for the rest of the season with a broken bone in his wrist and a concussion suffered in a weekend loss to Stony Brook.
UML is now 15-15, 7-8 in America East (currently in 5th). Maine drops to 5-24, 3-11 and has two regular season games remaining, currently sitting in the 7th place position in the conference. The top 8 make it to the America East playoffs. Maine will wrap up their home regular season when Binghamton visits at 11 a.m. Saturday.
