The University of Maine women’s basketball team moved closer to clinching a home court berth for the America East quarterfinals on Thursday night thanks to junior point guard and Seattle University transfer Asta Blauenfeldt.
Blauenfeldt hit a crucial 3-pointer to close out the third period and added two more threes in the fourth quarter to lead the Black Bears to a 62-48 win over New Hampshire at the Memorial Gym in Orono.
UMaine improved to 14-14 overall and 9-6 in the conference while UNH concluded its regular season at 10-19 and 4-12 and will be the eighth seed for the tournament.
It was UMaine’s 10th consecutive win over its closest rivals.
UMaine, Bryant and the New Jersey Institute of Technology are fighting for third and fourth place and home court for the quarterfinals entering the regular season finales on Saturday. Bryant, 8-7 in the conference, hosts UMaine at 1 while NJIT, also 8-7, visits league leader Albany at 7.
UMaine would clinch a home court berth with a win over Bryant or an NJIT loss to Albany.
The Black Bears had seen a 16-point lead whittled down to two with 17 seconds left in the third quarter.
Blauenfeldt hit her three with five seconds left in the period to give the Black Bears some important breathing room to take into the final 10 minutes.
Blauenfeldt said coach Amy Vachon called a play for her.
“She trusted me to take that last shot. She wanted me to take it,” said Blauenfeldt.
Paula Gallego opened the fourth quarter with a layup to expand the lead to seven and Blauenfeldt hit another three off a Caroline Bornemann pass to make it 46-36 with 8:46 remaining in the game.
New Hampshire cut it back to six by scoring the next four points but Caroline Dotsey converted a layup with 6:59 to go to restore the lead to eight. Then Dotsey fed Blauenfeldt for her third three of the half to make it 51-40 with 5:24 remaining, and UNH couldn’t get any closer than nine the rest of the way.
Olivia Rockwood hit a pair of threes down the stretch to keep UNH from mounting another rally.
“I thought we played well for three quarters,” said Vachon. “Asta played a great game today.”
Blauenfeldt called it a “very important” win.
“The whole middle of the conference is separated by just two games so every win in the end is important. You have to play like it’s your last game,” said Blauenfeldt.
Blauenfeldt, who is from Denmark, finished with a team-high 18 points and she also had two rebounds and two steals. She shot 6-for-13 from the floor and 4-for-8 from beyond the 3-point arc.
It was her 12th double-digit game of the season.
Senior guard Gallego contributed 13 points, four rebounds and three assists and graduate student forward-guard Bornemann had eight points, 10 rebounds, six assists and four steals. Her 10 rebounds and six assists were game-highs and the four steals matched UNH’s Eva DeChent for the game-high.
Senior guards Sera Hodgson and Rockwood each had eight points and two rebounds; sophomore forward Dotsey had seven points and two assists and junior guard Sarah Talon had four blocked shots and two rebounds.
Sophomore guard DeChent finished with a game-high 24 points for New Hampshire to go with her four steals and nine rebounds.
Senior UNH guard Kenzie Matulonis had eight points, three assists and two rebounds and senior forward Belen Morales Lopez chipped in with eight points, six rebounds and two assists.
