Due to some changes to the upcoming America East women’s basketball tournament, the Maine Black Bears have clinched the #1 seed and the America East regular season title and will receive a bye in the first round.
Maine (15-2, 12-2 America East) takes the top seed based off win percentage. The Black Bears will host the semifinal round against the lowest remaining seed on Sunday, March 7 at 1 p.m. at Memorial Gym in Orono. They still have one regular season game remaining on Saturday in Orono at 2 p.m. against UNH. The #2, 3 and 4 seeds will all host quarterfinal games on Sunday, February 28 and those matchups look to be NJIT at Stony Brook, UNH at UMass-Lowell, and Binghamton at Albany. This is a change from what originally was supposed to take place where #1 and #2 would have both gotten byes, but due to the three league teams opting out for the rest of the season (UMBC, Vermont, Hartford) the conference needed to make the necessary changes with only seven teams left. The championship game would be on the home court of the highest remaining seed on Friday, March 12 at 5 p.m.
Maine for the third time in the last four seasons wins the regular season title. It is the 14th outright title for the Black Bears, 17th time since 1984-85 they’ve at least won a share and at least a share as well in five of the last seven years.
