The University of Maine women’s basketball team pictured above after their America East championship win, will be competing in the NCAA Tournament in Raleigh, North Carolina Saturday afternoon. Photo by Anthony DelMonaco.
The Maine Black Bears women’s basketball team found out their NCAA Tournament opponent and location three hours early on Monday afternoon. An error by ESPN allowed the brackets to be shown on ESPN U sometime around 4 pm, when the selection show wasn’t scheduled to air until 7 pm on ESPN.
Maine (25-7), the America East regular season and postseason champions, and also winners of 14 straight games, got a 14 seed in the field of 64. In their second consecutive appearance in the tournament, Maine will face the 3 seed North Carolina State for the second time this year on their home floor. The Black Bears and Wolfpack out of the ACC will square off at Reynolds Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina Saturday at 1 pm. NCSU won the December 15th meeting between the two teams 84-46.
North Carolina State is 26-5 and ranked 10th nationally, and lost in their postseason ACC Tournament in the semifinals to #3 Louisville. Four of the five Wolfpack starters average double figures that includes Kiara Leslie (15.5), Grace Hunter (14.6), Elissa Cunane (13.6), and Aislinn Konig (11.0). Kayla Jones had 14 points and Konig had her season average of 11 when the two teams met in the regular season. Two of Maines best players Tanesha Sutton and America East Conference player of the year Blanca Millan only had six points a piece in that matchup, and were also missing starter Fanny Wadling with a concussion. Millan and Sutton average 17.6 and 14.6 points per game respectively. The Bears also only shot 27 percent from the floor in that game, compared to 57 percent for the Wolfpack, who outrebounded Maine 50-26 and outscored them 40-2 in the paint. Saturdays first round game can be seen live on ESPN 2.
