ORONO- It is not the way the #1 seed Maine Black Bears had maybe thought their first round playoff game would go on Friday evening. Despite shooting just 31%, the Black Bears put three players in double figures and would fend off a determined #8 UMass-Lowell squad 49-43 in an America East women’s basketball quarterfinal played inside the Pit at Memorial Gymnasium.
Maine started 0-7 from the floor, as UMass-Lowell scored the first five points of the evening. The Black Bears took their first lead on a three-pointer by Anne Simon at 7-6, before the Riverhawks answered with five straight on a three-pointer by Leilani Rodriguez and a layup from Sydney Watkins. Two layups by Simon and Sarah Talon to end the first quarter tied it at 11-11. There were four lead changes in the second period, and a late three-pointer by Olivia Rockwood would even the score again at 19-19 at the halftime break despite the hosts shooting just 25%.
The lead changes continued in the third quarter with five more, and Maine who hadn’t led by more than one would take their largest at that point 32-29 on layups by Caroline Bornemann and Adrianna Smith 40 seconds apart and would never trail again. Rockwood was also big with a pair of three-pointers in the period. Rodriguez re-tied the contest for UMass-Lowell with a three-pointer to begin the fourth, before a layup from Bornemann 13 seconds later restored the Black Bears lead. With the Riverhawks still hanging around at 40-38 with 2:40 to play, Bornemann converted a three-point play to finally give a little separation. She got a bounce pass down the left side of the lane from Smith, and converted a layup over Rayne Durant and then hit the free throw to extend it to 43-38. Smith hit 4-4 from the foul line over the final 32 seconds to ice the victory.
Smith came close to hitting a triple double, finishing with 14 points, 10 assists, and eight rebounds in the Maine win. That was her 22nd double double of the season, which set an America East record. She only shot 3-12 from the floor, but hit 8-8 from the foul line. Simon and Bornemann had 12 points each. Simon grabbed seven rebounds, while Bornemann hauled in nine. Rockwood finished with nine points (3-6 three-pointers). Smith and Simon (5-20) combined to shoot just 8-32 from the field, but the Black Bears were able to do just enough to advance especially on the glass with a 36-25 rebounding edge and collecting 14 of those on the offensive end. The double digit points for Simon was the 100th she’s done that in her career. Rodriguez had 12 points to lead UMass-Lowell, while Watkins finished with 11 points and eight rebounds. The Riverhawks gave a great effort playing the top seed, coming in with a 4-24 record against a Maine team that had seven wins just in the month of February alone. They end their season at 4-25. Maine (22-9) will take on #5 Binghamton (14-16) in the semifinal round on Monday night at the Pit with a scheduled tip-off time of 6 p.m. The Bearcats beat #4 Bryant 56-51 in another quarterfinal Friday night. The Black Bears won both regular season meetings, 59-56 on January 27 in New York and 57-51 in Bangor on February 29. Maine has won 10 straight games over Binghamton, and is 3-0 against them in the postseason with all three of those happening in the quarterfinal round (2023, 2017, 2015).
Recap/photos/videos by Chris Lessner
