Sophomore forward Caroline Dotsey poured in a game-high and career-high 30 points and the University of Maine women’s basketball team ran its winning streak against New Hampshire to nine games with a 65-54 America East victory at Lundholm Gymnasium in Durham, New Hampshire, on Thursday night.
UMaine improved to 11-10 overall and 6-2 in league play with its fourth straight win.
UNH fell to 8-14 and 2-7.
It was the fourth consecutive game that the 6-foot-2 Dotsey has scored in double figures and she is averaging 19.75 points per game during that stretch.
She shot 11-for-20 from the floor and 2-for-5 beyond the 3-point arc. During the four-game spell, she has now gone 31-for-54 from the floor (57.4 percent) and 9-for-20 from (45 percent) from beyond the 3-point arc.
The Haverford, Pennsylvania, native also grabbed three rebounds.
UMaine senior guard Paula Gallego had 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists and junior point guard Asta Blauenfeldt produced eight points, five rebounds, four steals and three assists.
The Black Bears also received eight points and four rebounds from graduate student forward Caroline Bornemann, six points, five rebounds and four assists from graduate student guard Olivia Rockwood and five rebounds, two steals and two points from senior guard Sera Hodgson.
Sophomore guard and University of Rhode Island transfer Eva DeChent pumped in 29 points for UNH. She also had eight rebounds and two assists.
DeChent, who entered the game as the conference’s second-leading scorer with a 17.2 points per game average, scored 14 of her points from the free throw line as she went 14-for-16.
Senior forward Clara Gomez had seven points, a game-high 11 rebounds, four steals and two assists, sophomore guard Maggie Cavanaugh had six points and senior forward Belen Morales Lopez had four points and seven rebounds.
UMaine used a 17-4 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to break the game open.
The Black Bears closed out the third quarter on a 7-3 run to take a 55-47 lead into the final period.
Blauenfeldt hit a three off a Rockwood pass and Borenmann and Dotsey had baskets during the surge.
UMaine opened the fourth quarter with a 10-1 run to expand the lead to 65-48.
Bornemann had six points and Gallego hit a three as the Black Bears sewed up the win.
UMaine shot 45.3 percent from the floor and 31.6 percent from long distance while UNH shot just 29.6 percent and 21.4 percent, respectively.
After scoring 17 points in the first half, UMaine held DeChent to 12 in the second half and UMaine coach Amy Vachon told Van Wagner and Black Bear Sports Properties play-by-play man Don Shields that she put Hodgson on DeChent in the second half and she did a “fantastic job trying to make her go left.
“Look, (DeChent) had 29 points but half of them were from the free throw line,” said Vachon.
DeChent shot 6-for-21 from the floor.
UMaine will host Vermont on Saturday at 1 p.m. while UNH returns to action next Thursday at the University of Maryland Baltimore County for a 6:30 contest.
