BANGOR, Maine- Dor Saar scored a career high 30 points, and Maeve Carroll hit a baseline jumper as time expired Friday night to lift Maine Black Bears to an exciting 61-60 win over the Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix in women’s non-conference basketball action before an electric 1,182 fans at the Cross Insurance Center.
Saar scorched the nets in this one, starting in the first quarter as she hit four out of her first five three-point attempts. W-GB (5-5) had an early 2-0 lead but never pushed back into the lead until late in the second quarter. Maine (4-8) went on a 14-4 run the last 4:41 of the opening quarter to take a 21-10 lead. Saar with her first assist of the night hit 300 in her career, and then with her fourth three-pointer the junior guard also reached 600 career points. The Black Bears though went cold in the second shooting just 1-7 and 1-4 from the foul line (4-11 in first half), as the Phoenix rolled off nine straight points to start the quarter to pull within 21-19. A three point play from Karly Murphy and a late basket from Madison Wolf made it 28-24 at halftime in favor of the visitors with an 18-3 advantage in points in the period.
Maine Black Bear forward Maeve Carroll and Green Bay forward Carly Murphy take the opening tip during non-conference women’s basketball action on Friday, December 13, 2019 at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. Carroll hit a last second shot as the Black Bears won the game 61-60. Photo by Chris Lessner (click to enlarge)
The Phoenix continued to build their momentum scoring the first four points of the third as well after two Maine turnovers to stretch to an eight point lead forcing Black Bears head coach Amy Vachon into an early timeout. The run had extended to 22-3 since the end of the first quarter. Two more three-pointers from Saar and a basket by Anne Simon wedged around a hoop from Anna Dier for W-GB cut it to 36-34 with an 8-2 spurt. Saar nailed yet another three to tie it 38-38 with 3:26 left. Saar said, “I shot the ball well in warmups, and I know I haven’t shot the ball well lately but I knew it was gonna happen and I am really glad it happened today. Also i got alot of good looks because my teammates found me and they did a really good job, and we did a really good job as a team to find the open man”. The Phoenix jumped back ahead by four twice, before Saar went the length of the floor in the waining seconds and drove to the right amongst the taller defender and layed one in off the glass at the buzzer to make it 44-42 headed to the fourth quarter.
Wisconsin-Green Bay continued to hold the lead in the fourth by four to eight points, and down eight with just 2:28 remaining is when the Black Bears made their charge to steal this one. Saar hit 4-4 from the line in back to back possessions and then Kelly Fogarty knocked in a three-pointer with 1:10 left to cut it to 58-57. After a miss on the other end Anne Simon got the rebound and then would draw a foul on the Phoenix, and hit two from the line to give Maine a 59-58 lead with 11 seconds showing on the clock. Simon then committed a foul on guard Frankie Wurtz near the basket after a Green Bay timeout, and Wurtz calmly drained both for a one point Phoenix lead with 5.5 seconds left. With no timeouts, Saar dribbled to midcourt and passed to Simon near the three-point line who then quickly swung a pass to a wide open Carroll on the left baseline who sank the shot nothing but net as the buzzer sounded sending the Cross Center into pandemonium. Carroll said, “We immediately got it to Dor and then they had two people on Dor, so Dor kicked it to Anne and they were all over her. I mean the whole game they kinda left me open to shoot, I probably should of shot earlier, but i was left alone in the corner and Anne kicked it to me and I didn’t even second guess it I just went for it”. She added, “I couldn’t even tell you how I felt in the moment, there was so much adrenaline it was awesome”.
Coach Vachon said, “Really proud of our team. I told them after the Darmouth game how proud I am of them, especially the nine that are healthy right now they are battling and fighting. There are alot of reasons we could give up or just pack it in but they don’t, they just come in everyday and compete and they want to get better. To see them fight today, we talked about being tough before the game because Green Bay is a tough team, physically they are just so good. We knew we were gonna have to be tough both physically and mentally and I think we were, and I am just so proud of our team”.
Saar ended with the game high in points shooting 9-14 from the floor (8-10 three-pointers), adding two assists and two steals. Also was a career high in points for Simon who had 17, also chipping in six rebounds and three assists. Fogarty added seven points and five rebounds, while Carroll finished with just five points with the last two being the biggest. She also had seven rebounds. Maine shot 44% and also 45.5% from the three-point line (10-22). They also went 11-12 at the line in the second half after the tough struggles in half number one. Murphy led the Phoenix from Wisconsin-Green Bay with 15 points and seven rebounds. Lyndsey Robson had 14 points, while Wurtz added 12. The visitors shot 40%, but 0-8 from the three-point arc after coming in at 33% on the season from there. They did outscore the Bears 38-14 in the paint, but despite the height differential Maine outrebounded Green Bay 33-30. Vachon added, “We’ve talked about things we can control like boxing out and that isn’t a talent, that’s a toughness, desire, and focus thing. I thought we did a good job at Darmouth and another good job today. It was well-rounded, we don’t have one person that is going to get 15 rebounds, it is a team effort so that is good to see”. Maine is now off until next Saturday when they host Northeastern at 1 p.m.
Maine freshman guard Anne Simon tries to defend a shot attempt by Wisconsin-Green Bay guard Lyndsey Robson during second half women’s basketball action on Friday, December 13, 2019 at the Cross Insurance Center. Photo by Chris Lessner (click to enlarge)
WGB (5-5) 10 18 16 16- 60
UME (4-8) 21 3 18 19- 61
Field goals- WGB 22-55 (40%), UME 18-41 (43.9)
Three pointers- WGB: none, UME: Saar 8, Fogarty 2
Turnovers- WGB 8, UME 17
Bench scoring- WGB 15, UME 0
