ORONO- Adrianna Smith had a career high 20 points including two go ahead free throws with 1:25 left in the fourth quarter on Monday night, as the Maine Black Bears squeaked out a 61-59 victory over the Northeastern Huskies in a non-conference women’s basketball game at Memorial Gymnasium.
Maine, who shot just 12% in the first half of a home loss to Yale on Saturday night, didn’t have those problems in the entire game with Northeastern. The Black Bears shot 54.5% in the first half, and after a back and forth first quarter Jaycie Christopher hit a last second three-pointer to put the hosts up 17-14. They went up by five early in the second, before the Huskies scored eight straight points on four consecutive layups that included four Maine turnovers to re-take a 22-19 lead. The Bears finished out the first half on a 9-4 run and led 28-26 at halftime.
In a game that saw 13 lead changes, Northeastern again jumped back into the lead by as many as four in the third quarter at 41-37. Maine finished another period strong however going on a 10-0 run highlighted by three layups by Smith, two free throws from Sarah Talon, and an easy Olivia Rockwood basket off a feed from Smith to take a 50-43 advantage heading to the fourth. Down by six with 5:19 left, the Huskies wouldn’t go away quietly. NU went on a 6-0 spurt tying it 57-57 finished off by two layups in the paint by Derin Erdogan, the second off another Black Bear turnover. Smith who was big in the post all night regained a two point lead with a basket in the paint, before a jumper by Gemima Motema on the other end tied it up with 1:55 remaining. Talon missed a jump shot to try to give Maine the lead, but Smith got the offensive rebound and went up only to get fouled. Smith sank both free throws which ended up being the game winners. Northeastern had one more chance after they failed on their next offensive possession, when Paula Gallego missed a jumper for the Black Bears on the other end. With 28.6 seconds showing on the clock, the Huskies got a couple good looks at it by Erdogan as she missed a short jumper in the paint and then after a scramble on the rebound she ended up getting it back and missed a three-pointer that went out of bounds with only 2.8 seconds left. Maine was able to inbound the ball three times, getting fouled twice and the third inbounds pass was enough to run out the clock.
Smith also added a career high 12 rebounds to her point total, along with three assists. It is also the first double double of her career. No other Maine player got into double figures. Caroline Bornemann had nine points, while the two freshmen Christopher (Skowhegan) and Talon (Windham) had their best games of the season so far with nine and eight points respectively. The Black Bears shot 51% for the game, including 7-14 (50%) from the three-point arc. They played without Anne Simon, who was injured in the Yale game, and will be out for an indefinite amount of time. Motema had 20 points and six rebounds in the loss for Northeastern, while Erdogan had 15 points. The Huskies out of Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) fall to 2-3. Maine improves to 2-2 and will now head to California to take part in a tournament at St. Mary’s College. The Black Bears will face Big 12 opponent Kansas on Friday at 3 p.m.
