Parise Rossignol scored 21 of her career high and game high 32 points in the first half on Wednesday night, to help the Maine Black Bears to a 79-45 win over the University of Massachusetts-Lowell Riverhawks in America East women’s basketball action at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Rossignol at one point scored 10 consecutive points in the first quarter during a 14-0 Maine run, as the Bears jumped out to a 15-5 lead. In a 29-19 game in the second quarter, Rossignol hit a pair of three pointers during a 12-4 spurt, including one from about five feet from behind the line as the second quarter buzzer sounded to give Maine their biggest lead at 41-23. The hosts went up 31 in the third quarter, as they scored 18 of the first 23 points after intermission. UML (6-15, 2-6 America East) scored 10 straight points towards the end of the third and beginning of the fourth to make it 59-38, but the Bears finished it off with a 20-7 run and the biggest lead of the night was the 34 point margin of victory.
For the Van Buren, Maine native Rossignol, she finished 12-19 from the floor and 8-11 from three point range, breaking a school record for most made three pointers in a game. Blanca Millan added 11 points, three assists, and two steals. Kelly Forgarty and Maddy McVicar both came off the bench to score nine and seven points respectively, while Tanesha Sutton and Dor Saar each had six points. Sutton added nine rebounds, six assists, and three steals, while Saar had seven assists. “It was alot of fun for sure. Before the game coach put on the board we have three guaranteed regular season home games left, and that just kinda hit home with me. I love playing here and it’s been special playing here for four years. I just wanted to take advantage of the time I have left playing here and that was my mindset going in”, said Rossignol. “The whole team was shooting the ball well during shoot around this morning. I felt good during shoot around and during warm ups. I always go into the game confident, it was no different today”, she added.
UMass-Lowell was led by Oda Shackleford who had 13 points. Linda Svenne added 11 points and seven rebounds. UML head coach Tom Garrick said, “They shot the ball really well. They have really good perimeter players and we weren’t alert enough to find them when neccessary. Anytime you give someone 11 three pointers and they are a good shooter, I expect they are gonna make a good amount of them and Rossignol did she made eight. Unfortunately for us she was open more in the second half then she was the first half, so it was clear our adjustments didn’t sink in”. Maine head coach Amy Vachon said, “Really good team win. One of the things we have been trying to work on is defensively and how we can get better there. I thought in second half we did a really nice job. Obviously Parise played an outstanding game that was fun to watch. It’s fun that she finally beat her Dads record too”.
Maine improves to 14-7 overall, 7-1 in America East play and with a Binghamton upset win over Hartford Wednesday night, the Black Bears are now in a first place tie with the Hawks. Maine will hit the road to battle rival UNH Saturday at 1 pm in Durham.
