The University of Maine men’s and women’s basketball teams finished up their two game conference series on Sunday afternoon, at Vermont and Albany respectively.
At Patrick Gym and Tom Brennan Court, Vermont got a game high 23 points from Justin Mazzulla to finish off an impressive weekend sweep with an 88-60 win.
Maine (2-7, 2-6 America East) held one lead on the first basket of the game, before Vermont scored seven straight and took control and never trailed again. The Black Bears were within 12-10 when Precious Okho hit a three-pointer about five minutes in, but the hosts finished the first half outscoring the visitors 35-18 for a 19 point halftime lead. The Catamounts used a 14-2 run to start the second half to inflate the advantage to 61-30, and would lead by as many as 34 to improve to 7-3. Stephane Ingo and Okho each had 15 points and four rebounds to lead Maine in the loss. Mazzulla added five rebounds to his point total in the Vermont win, while Ryan Davis (17), Isaiah Powell (15), Ben Shungu (10) also got into double figures.
Meanwhile at SEFCU Arena in Albany, the women’s team got a game high 27 points from Blanca Millan to win their fifth straight game and sweep the weekend over the Great Danes with a 63-47 win.
Maine (10-1, 7-1 America East), never trailed leading 16-13 after one quarter and ballooning to a 40-24 halftime lead thanks to a 24 point second quarter. Albany rallied, holding the Black Bears to just five third quarter points to get within 48-44 with 7:14 to play. The guests took over though, finishing the game on a 15-3 run to pick up the win. Millan was 11-21 from the floor (4-8 three-pointers), adding six rebounds and three steals. The fifth year senior also becomes just the fourth player at the school with 200+ three-pointers. Anne Simon added 13 points, and Dor Saar had nine points and five assists and passed Cindy Blodgett for the school record in made three-pointers hitting three of them and now has 220 in her career. Saar is also two points shy of 1,000. Kyra Frames had 16 points and Lucia Decortes 14 for Albany in the loss. The difference once again was turnovers, as the Black Bears forced 19 Great Danes miscues leading to a 25-7 point advantage.
Both teams are scheduled to play Binghamton next Saturday and Sunday, with the women on the road against the Bearcats and the men hosting at Memorial Gym in Orono.
