It wasn’t pretty. It was a struggle.
But the University of Maine women’s basketball team received a go-ahead 3-pointer from junior forward Caroline Bornemann with 1:50 left in the game, just the Black Bears’ second basket of the quarter, as they edged Binghamton University 69-65 at the Memorial Gym in Orono on Saturday afternoon.
UMaine will get the third seed in the America East playoffs and host No. 6 Binghamton on Wednesday night in the quarterfinals.
UMaine finished the regular season at 15-13 overall and 11-5 in the conference while the Bearcats wound up 13-16 and 6-10, including a pair of four-point wins over Binghamton.
Bornemann’s 3-pointer, just her second basket of the game, made it 62-59 and two Adi Smith free throws a minute later extended the lead to five.
Binghamton couldn’t get any closer than three the rest of the way.
Sophomore forward Smith finished with 31 points and 19 rebounds for her 15th double-double of the season.
Senior guard Anne Simon, in her second game back after missing eight games due to a lingering high ankle sprain, finished with 18 points, five assists and four rebounds. Junior guard Olivia Rockwood had nine points.
Redshirt freshman guard Jadyn Weltz scored 23 points to lead the Bearcats. She also hauled down 12 rebounds, dished out four assists and had three steals.
Junior guard Denai Bowman had 17 points, three rebounds and three assists.
Sophomore forward Genevieve Coleman had 13 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals.
UMaine raced out to a 7-0 lead and led by as many as eight in the second quarter.
But the resilient Bearcats outscored UMaine 11-5 to finish out the first half to pull within 29-27 at the intermission.
UMaine made just one of its last five field goal attempts and managed to gather in just three offensive rebounds in the first half.
Smith, whose basket in the final seconds supplied UMaine with its two-point lead at the break, had a double-double in the first half with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Simon had 10 points and two steals.
Smith and Simon shot 50 percent from the floor (9-for-18), but the rest of the team went just 2-for-8.
Weltz’s 11 points, eight rebounds and three steals paced Binghamton. Coleman and Bowman had six points apiece, and Coleman also grabbed four rebounds.
UMaine shot just 25 percent beyond the 3-point arc (2-for-8), but the Bearcats were even worse at 11.1 percent (1-for-9).