Dor Saar had a team high 21 points, and Anne Simon added 20 on Wednesday night as the Maine Black Bears won their seventh consecutive game with a 71-62 win over New Hampshire at Lundholm Gym in Durham, NH in America East women’s basketball action.
Both teams led in the first quarter with the Wildcats grabbing the biggest of seven points. The Black Bears led 18-17 after the opening 10 minutes. In a back and forth second quarter with again both teams holding a lead, Maine built their biggest of the game to that point several times of three points and led by that same margin 33-30 at the halftime break.
The visitors went up four early in the third on a three-pointer from Kelly Fogarty, before the hosts took the lead back on an Ashley Storey jumper 40-38 with 5:29 left. With UNH up 44-43 late in the period, Maine used a 7-2 run finished off with a Maddy McVicar three-pointer with 1.1 seconds remaining to make it 50-46 Black Bears headed to the fourth quarter. The Wildcats stayed within four early in the final period, but the Bears used another 7-2 run capped off by a Maeve Carroll layup to up the advantage to 59-50 with just over five minutes remaining. UNH only got as close as four the rest of the way, before Maine hit 5-6 from the line in the final 31 seconds to salt away their ninth straight win over the Wildcats.
Saar added four rebounds, five assists, and five steals to her team high point total in the Maine win. Simon added 11 rebounds for another double double for the freshman. Carroll and Fogarty each added nine points each. Storey had a game high 23 points and five rebounds in the loss for UNH, including her 1,000th career point in the fourth quarter. Amanda Torres added 11 points and Maggie Ahearn added 10 as the Wildcats had their three game win streak snapped. UNH falls to 10-17, 7-8 America East. Maine improves to 15-14, 11-4 and clinches the #2 seed for the upcoming America East playoffs. The Black Bears finish off the regular season in Baltimore against UMBC Saturday afternoon.
