ORONO- Anna Foley had a game-high 20 points on Sunday afternoon, as the Quinnipiac Bobcats stayed unbeaten by holding off a second half rally by the Maine Black Bears to pick up a 61-53 non-conference women’s basketball win inside the Pit at Skip Chappelle Court.
After Asta Blauenfeldt opened the game with a basket for Maine, Quinnipiac went on a 12-2 run capped off by a three-pointer by Karson Martin to take the lead for good at 12-4. They led by eight twice in the first quarter, but Jaycie Christopher started hot and knocked down a pair of three-pointers for the Black Bears and it was 20-15 after 10 minutes. The Bobcats started the second on a spurt of 11-2 to what turned out to be their largest advantage of the afternoon at 31-17, and took a 36-27 lead to the halftime break. Christopher was a perfect 3-3 for the Black Bears, all from three-point territory in the opening half.
Quinnipiac led by 11 halfway through the third quarter on a three-pointer by Paige Girardi, before Maine started to make a move to get back in the game. The Black Bears scored six straight on a pair of baskets from Sarah Talon, and two free throws from Sera Hodgson to get within five and was down seven heading to the fourth at 44-37. A layup in the paint by Gal Raviv made it a nine point advantage with 8:15 to play, but the Black Bears were able to string some shots together and got some defensive stops to get as close as they had been since early in the first quarter. Hodgson knocked down a three-pointer with 5:13 to go to slice it to 50-48.
After a basket by Foley for the Bobcats, Christopher scored down low to once again cut it to a two point game.
Foley responded with a three-pointer for Quinnipiac, and despite Paula Gallego hitting another one from long range for her team to make it 56-53 with 2:46 remaining, Maine was unable to get the stops needed or the shots to fall the rest of the way. Martin pushed it back to five point lead with a layup in the paint, and Foley along with Jackie Grisdale combined to hit three free throws over the final 16 seconds to ice the win.
Christopher off the bench in 30 minutes led Maine in the loss with a team-high and season-high 13 points (3-6 three-pointers), also adding three rebounds and three assists. Talon and Caroline Bornemann both contributed 10 points. Talon also chipped in eight rebounds, while Bornemann had 10 rebounds and also three assists and two steals. Caroline Dotsey also came off the bench to score eight points (2-4 three-pointers). The Black Bears shot just 33% and 21.9% from the three-point arc (7-32), in losing their third consecutive game to fall to 2-4. Foley would add eight rebounds and seven assists to her game-high point total for Quinnipiac. Grisdale was the only double figure scorer by putting in 11 points with six rebounds and three assists. The Bobcats out of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference are now 5-0 on the season. Maine will hit the road to North Easton, Massachusetts to take on Stonehill College on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
All photos and videos by Chris Lessner
