The Stony Brook Seawolves held the Maine Black Bears to just 32% shooting Saturday afternoon, securing a 59-54 America East women’s basketball win at Island Federal Credit Union Arena in Stony Brook, New York.
A very closely contested first half saw both teams holding a slight lead. The Black Bears and Seawolves didn’t lead by more than three, and the hosts held a 26-24 halftime lead. Maine leading scorer Blanca Millan had a tough shooting day and was just 2-12 in the opening 20 minutes. A 12-2 run in the third quarter gave Stony Brook (11-4, 9-2 America East) the biggest lead of the day at 40-30. Maine battled back getting within one on a Millan jumper with 6:24 to play, and then tying it 47-47 on a pair of free throws from Anne Simon 1:17 later. The Seawolves responded with a 5-0 spurt including a big three-pointer by Gigi Gonzales. The Bears cut it a single point again on a Simon jumper with less than two minutes remaining, and then after a pair of missed free throws by Stony Brook, Simon connected on a three to make it 56-54 with 14 seconds left. Asiah Dingle made up for the missed free throws though by draining two to put the game away in the closing seconds.
Simon led the way in the loss for Maine, with 17 points and three rebounds. Maeve Carroll had 13 points and eight rebounds, and Millan finished with 12 points and seven rebounds on 4-18 shooting. The Black Bears were just 20-62 from the floor, and 4-16 (25%) from the three-point arc as their record drops to 14-2, 11-2. Dingle led Stony Brook in the win as the only double digit scorer for the home team finishing with 16 points. The Seawolves shot 45.5% from the floor. Maine was outscored 17-4 in bench points, losing just their second game of the season and only their second loss since last January 26th. The regular season conference title is still in sight with a win on Sunday in game two of the weekend series at 2 p.m.
