BANGOR- The Maine women’s basketball team shot 60 percent from the floor Saturday afternoon, including knocking down 15 three point baskets in routing the visitors from University of Maryland, Baltimore County 84-44 in America East action before 1,829 fans at the Cross Insurance Center.
10 early first quarter points from Parise Rossignol allowed Maine (9-6, 1-0 America East) to jump out to a 13-3 lead. The Retrievers cut it to 13-8 with 4:10 left, before the Bears took off scoring the next 25 points lasting into the second quarter and giving the hosts a 38-8 lead. Maine head coach Amy Vachon said, “I thought we shot the ball really well especially in that first quarter and in the first half. We really shot the ball well, but thought we executed really well offensively. We’ve really been working hard on where the defense is and making those cuts and making those passes, and thought we did that really well in the first half”. The run ended when UMBC (7-7, 0-1) scored almost three minutes into the second quarter. The Black Bears got more than half of their points during the explosion from behind the arc nailing five three pointers. Maine pushed the lead all the way out to 54-14 at the break.
More of the same in the second half as the visitors never got closer than 36, and Maine led by as many as 45 in the fourth quarter and helping them start the America East schedule 2-0 for first time since 2016. UMBC has now lost seven of their last eight games after starting 6-0. Rossignol finished with 19 points on 7-9 shooting (5-6 three point). “I have definitely been confident in my shot lately, but that is because we are running our offense well, making good cuts, my teammates are setting good screens, and alot of my shots are open”, said Rossignol. Kelly Forgarty added 14 off the bench on 5-9 shooting (4-8 three point). Fanny Wadling had nine points, six rebounds, and four assists in her second game back from injury. “I feel much better today than I did last game for sure. It takes a while, I haven’t been able to do anything during that time but I feel like I am getting back to it”, said Wadling. Wadling had missed 10 games to a concussion prior to her return Wednesday night in the win over UNH. Tanesha Sutton and Doga Alper added eight a piece, Maddy McVicar seven, and Blanca Millan and Dor Saar had six a piece. UMBC got 11 points from Tyler Moore, and also 10 points and six rebounds from Kayla Jackson.
UMBC assistant coach Karlee Dewey who is the acting head coach since Phil Stern took a leave of absence back on December 6 and hasn’t returned said, “Obviously they shot the ball really well, but just our effort and communication on the defensive end needs to improve, and think it was a perfect storm just from our lack of communication and then they were burying threes. They (Maine) are really hard to guard because they are really smart. You try to take something away then they do the opposite and I think they showed that”.
Maine now hits the road for the first time in America East play this season when they head to Burlington, Vermont to face the Vermont Catamounts on Wednesday night at 7 pm.
