Reigning America East rookie of the week Anne Simon scored a game high 22 points on Wednesday night to lead the Maine Black Bears to a 70-59 women’s conference win over the Vermont Catamounts at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Vermont (10-13, 4-6 America East) took an early 7-2 lead on a three-pointer from Delaney Richason, and baskets from Josie Larkins and Hannah Crymble. Maine scored the next 13 points to take a 15-7 lead capped off by a Kira Barra jumper, and led 15-9 after the first quarter. The Catamounts opened the second quarter by scoring 13 of the first 15 points, and led 22-17 when Larkins knocked in a three-pointer. The Black Bears fought back to take the lead on a Dor Saar three-pointer with 57 seconds left, and took a one point advantage 27-26 at the break.
Maine built their lead back to eight points three minutes into the third quarter, before Vermont also showed their resiliency by fighting back into the lead 42-40 on a three-pointer by Richason with 2:45 to play in the period. The Bears pushed back into the lead by finishing on a 9-2 run and held a 49-44 cushion headed to the fourth quarter. The Catamounts scored the first six points of the fourth, and took their final lead with 6:11 left to play when Larkins made a layup to make it 50-49. Anna Kahelin scored on a layup 19 seconds later to give Maine the lead back for good. The Bears went up nine when Simon hit a three-pointer on a fastbreak with 3:27 left, but Vermont cut it to 61-57 when Crymble knocked down a pair from the line just 1:04 later. The hosts put it away in the final two minutes on a Simon layup, and hitting 7-8 from the foul line to ice the victory.
Simon added seven rebounds to go along with her point total in the Maine win. Carroll had a double double with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Saar also got into double figures with 14 points, four rebounds, and five assists. The Black Bears improve to 10-14, 6-4. Larkins and Crymble both had 17 points to lead Vermont in the loss. Larkins had eight rebounds and Cymble added six. Emma Utterback also contributed 11 points and five rebounds. Maine will host Binghamton on Sunday afternoon.
