Kylie Butler scored 10 of her 12 points in the fourth quarter Wednesday night, as the Vermont Catamounts knocked off Maine 55-52 in the America East Womens basketball opener for both teams at Patrick Gym in Burlington, Vermont.
The loss broke a five game losing streak for the home Catamounts, who improve their record to 4-9, 1-0 AE. Maine has now lost four in a row and drop to 7-9 and 0-1 in conference play.
Maine was without the services of high scorer senior guard Sigi Koizar due to injury. The Bears started the game red hot as they buried Vermont in the early going, building a 13-3 lead six minutes into the opening quarter. But Vermont would then end a nearly seven minute drought without a basket by scoring the last five points of the first, and then the first 11 points of the second to take a 19-13 lead, with the 16-0 run. The Cats ended up outscoring the Bears 15-3 in the second quarter to take a 23-16 lead at halftime. Vermont ended up with a 20-3 run to end the half, after the Bears had built that 10 point first quarter lead.
A back and forth third quarter did see Vermont hold their biggest lead of the contest at 31-20 by scoring eight of the first 12 points after intermission. Maine was able to cut it to eight, as Vermont took a 38-30 lead into the final 10 minutes of action.
Maine ran off the first six points of the fourth quarter, and would eventually tie the game 40-40 with 6:30 left. Vermont was able to take a four point lead back, and the lead would stay that way until Maines Julie Brousseau hit a three pointer with 29 seconds left to cut the deficit to one.
Vermont made one of two foul shots to push the lead back to 54-52. Brousseau would attempt to give Maine a late lead, but a three from the top of the key was off the mark. Vermont added one of two foul shots to push the lead to three. Maine had one final chance but a three by Laia Sole bounced off the back of the rim as time expired.
Sole led Maine with 21 points, five rebounds, and two blocks. Brousseau finished with 15 points, on 5-11 shooting from the three point arc.
Candice Wright added 11 points, eight rebounds, three assists, three blocks, and a steal for Vermont.
Maine and Vermont shot very close to the same percentages from the floor, as Maine shot 38 percent and Vermont at 37. Vermont outrebounded Maine 37-33. The Bears were 8-14 at the foul line, while Vermont was 16-29. Maine turned the ball over 17 times, while Vermont had 14.
Maine will open up their home conference schedule Saturday at noon, when they welcome in UMBC to the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
UME (7-9, 0-1) 13 3 14 22- 52
UVM (4-9, 1-0) 8 15 15 17- 55
