Amanda Hill scored a game high 25 points on Saturday afternoon as the Northeastern Huskies defeated the Maine Black Bears 66-58 in a women’s non-conference basketball game played at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Northeastern (4-6) held the biggest lead of the opening quarter after a Hill layup finished off an 8-0 run to make it 10-4. Maine scored 10 of the next 13 points to take over the lead again 14-13 on an Anne Simon layup, and the teams were tied 15-15 headed to the second. The Black Bears took their biggest lead of the day on three-pointers by Dor Saar and Maddy McVicar to open the second. The Huskies then ran off 10 straight points finished off by baskets from Stella Clark and Hill to take back the lead 25-21, before Maeve Carroll hit a layup and McVicar hit two more three-pointers for a 29-25 Maine lead. The Bears led 33-29 at the break.
Maine (4-9) then hit a scoring slump that allowed NU to score the first five points of the third to take a 34-33 lead. The Bears didn’t get a basket until McVicar put them back into the lead when she buried a three at the 4:43 mark to end a 5:26 drought. The hosts took their final lead of the day when graduate transfer Madson Lefft converted a three point play with 1:47 to go in the period to make it 43-42. Lefft was seeing her first action of the season. The visiting Huskies went up six and after a last second Simon three-pointer for the Bears would have a three point lead headed to the final quarter. Maine hit another drought at the beginning of the fourth not scoring for the first 4:29 allowing Northeastern to stretch the lead to 55-46. The closest the Black Bears would get the rest of the way is six on an Abbe Laurence layup with 37 seconds to go, but Maine committed too many turnovers that including nine in the final quarter as the Huskies had built the lead to 11 and would ice the road victory.
Maine put three players in double figures led by McVicar who had 16 points on 6-8 shooting (4-6 three-pointers). Simon had 14 points, four rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Carroll finished with 11 points and nine rebounds. Saar had eight points, five rebounds, and seven assists. Lefft, the transfer from Delaware, had seven points and four rebounds in 14 minutes. Simon had eight turnovers and Saar had six of the 24 the Black Bears committed on the day. Hill added four rebounds and six steals to her point total for Northeastern. Clark had 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and four steals. Ayanna Dublin also got into double figures with 12 points, eight rebounds, and four steals. The Huskies outscored the Black Bears 21-13 on points off turnovers and 44-24 in the paint. Maine is now off until Monday December 30 when they travel to Drexel for their final non-conference game of the season.
