ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s women’s basketball went on a 16-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to break the game open and post a 58-43 America East victory over the University of Maryland Baltimore County on the Skip Chappelle Court in the Memorial Gym on Thursday night.
UMaine improved to 7-9 overall and 2-1 in the conference while UMBC fell to 5-9 and 0-2.
It was UMaine’s sixth straight win over the Retrievers in Orono.
UMaine was holding a 40-35 lead with 2:16 left in third period before closing out the quarter with four unanswered points on a Lala Woods layup and two Sarah Talon free throws.
The Black Bears scored the first 12 points of the fourth quarter as the Retrievers went stone cold, missing their first 13 shots of the period.
Kennedy Austin’s layup with 4:21 remaining ended a UMBC scoreless drought of 7:54 but the Black Bears had already built a comfortable 21-point cushion.
After allowing 82 points in an 82-73 loss at Bryant in their last game, which represented the most points allowed in a conference game since 2014, the Black Bears held UMBC to its lowest total of the season. UMBC shot just 29.3 percent from the floor and 12.5 percent beyond the 3-point arc.
UMaine fifth-year senior forward Adrianna Smith registered her eighth double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds, both game-highs. She also had six assists which was also a game-high.
Senior point guard Asta Blauenfeldt had 13 points, four assists, three steals and two rebounds and senior guard Sarah Talon contributed 13 points, and three rebounds. Freshman guard Woods had eight points and six rebounds and junior forward Lizzy Gruber had five points, four blocked shots and three rebounds.
“This week we just really focused on defense,” said Smith. “In a game like (Bryant), you learn from it. We know we can be better. We want to be better so we just focused down on it.”
The UMaine players constantly rotated to help out on defense and frustrate the Retrievers.
“We set a goal and it was to limit their drives going middle and I think we did that all around,” said Blauenfeldt. “We relied on each other and we trusted that. There was help to stop the drives.”
Heidi Williams’ 16 points and four steals led UMBC. Jade Tillman had 13 points, three rebounds, two blocked shots and two assists. Tiara Bellamy had six points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals.
UMaine used a 13-4 spurt to close out the first half and take a 29-25 lead into the intermission and they would never relinquish it.
The chaotic and sloppily-played first half saw the two teams combine for 31 turnovers with the Black Bears committing 17 of them.
UMaine came into the game averaging 13.5 turnovers per game but the Retrievers entered the contest forcing an America East-leading 20.54 turnovers.
Smith had eight of the 17 turnovers.
But the Black Bears turned the ball over only seven times in the second half.
“It was just about calming down and adjusting to the pace,” explained Blauenfeldt.
UMaine finished shooting 44 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent beyond the 3-point arc.
“We just took what they gave us and reading it,” said Smith.
Smith also said the team played with a lot of intensity and the players off the bench gave them “great minutes. The bench really set our defensive tone up.”
After the Retrievers rattled off six unanswered points to build their lead to 21-16 in the secondc quarter, the Black Bears began their 13-4 spurt with a five-foot pull-up jumper by Talon and a fallaway jumper by Gruber.
Blauenfeldt then followed up her own miss with an offensive rebound and she converted a neat lefthanded flip shot.
The teams swapped the next eight points before Woods nailed a 3-pointer from the left side of the top of the key off a pass from Olivia Alvarez to make it 29-25.
It was her only field goal attempt of the half.
Smith had 11 points in the first half to pace the Black Bears and Blauenfeldt had eight to go with three assists and three steals.
Heidi Williams’ 12 points and three steals and Tillman’s seven points and two assists sparked the Retrievers.
UMaine will entertain the New Jersey Institute of Technology on Saturday at 1 while UMBC will play again next Thursday when it hosts Bryant at noon.
