In MacKenzie Holmes return to the Pine Tree State, the #17 Indiana Hoosiers went on a 10-0 fourth quarter run on Thursday night and rallied past the Maine Black Bears for a 67-59 women’s basketball win before a sold out crowd of 5,983 at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. The attendance is a program record for any UMaine women’s basketball game.
Both teams started cold from the floor, before Holmes scored the first basket 3:37 into action. Indiana took a five point lead, but Anne Simon had herself quite a night with 14 points in the opening 10 minutes including a last second jumper to give Maine a 16-14 edge. The hosts held the lead for the remainder of the first half, and would extend it as many as 10 on back to back steals and layups by Simon giving her 25 points at the break as the Black Bears led 37-29 at the intermission.
Indiana sliced the deficit to three on several occasions in the third quarter, including on a layup by Sydney Parrish near the end of the period making it 48-45 heading to the fourth. A three-pointer by Parrish with 7:34 left to play tied it at 52-52, before a Simon layup gave Maine their final lead 54 seconds later. A Parrish jumper with 4:39 remaining allowed the Hoosiers to take over the lead for good as part of a 10-0 run. It was their first lead since the first quarter, and that spurt put them up 62-54. Maine was only able to get as close as five after that, in what was an excellent showing of grit and determination against a much taller IU team.
Simon led all scorers finishing with a career-high 34 points. She also added 11 rebounds and five steals for 4-4 Maine. Adrianna Smith, who was guarded most of the night by Holmes, also had a great night with her fifth double-double in the first eight Black Bear games this season putting up 14 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, two steals, and one block. Holmes, the former Gorham High standout and Gatorade Player of the Year, led Indiana with 22 points (9-11 field goals), adding seven rebounds, one steal, and two blocks. Parrish had 17 points and 10 rebounds, with all 17 points coming in the second half. Sara Scalia also contributed 10 points and five rebounds for the Hoosiers out of the Big 10 Conference who improved to 6-1. Maine returns to action on Saturday at 2 p.m. on the road when they take on Fordham out of the Atlantic 10.
Recap by Chris Lessner
The crowd packs into the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Thursday night, as Maine women’s basketball took on MacKenzie Holmes and #17 Indiana. The Hoosiers came away with a hard fought 67-59 win. Photo is courtesy of Sandy Thomas
