Redshirt senior Adrianna Smith poured in a game-high 24 points and hauled down nine rebounds to lead the University of Maine women’s basketball team to a 54-45 victory over Boston University on the Skip Chappelle court in the Memorial Gym on Monday night.
Both teams are now 3-5.
Smith also dished out four assists.
Senior guard Sarah Talon from Windham had 12 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals and senior guard Asta Blauenfeldt contributed eight points, four steals, three assists and two rebounds.
Hildur Gunnsteinsdottir had 11 points and three rebounds for BU and Allison Schwertner had 10 points and six rebounds.
BU leading scorer and rebounder Anete Adler, a 6-foot-5 senior forward, suffered a leg injury early in the third period and left the game on crutches; UMaine then rattled off six straight points to build a 33-23 lead.
“It was a great team win,” said Smith. “We played really well against their defense and found the open shots and knocked down some big shots in crucial times.”
Freshman guard Olivia Alvarez gave the Black Bears some valuable breathing room with her only basket of the game, a 3-pointer with three minutes remaining to give UMaine a 51-40 lead.
“(Smith) yelled ‘shoot,” grinned Alvarez, who took her teammate’s advice.
The Black Bears led by as many as eight points in the first half and took a four-point lead into the intermission.
Audrey Ericksen and Schwertner had rallied the Terriers from a 21-13 deficit to within one with 3:06 left in the half before Blauenfeldt passed to Talon in the corner for a 3-pointer that closed out an underwhelming first-half showing by the two teams.
Ericksen began BU’s 7-0 run with a 3-pointer from the left side before she fed Schwertner underneath for a pair of baskets.
Smith, America East’s reigning Player of the Week, had 13 points, four rebounds and two assists in the first half and Talon produced six points.
They combined to shoot 7-for-14 from the floor while the rest of the Black Bears went 1-for-15.
Gunnsteinsdottir paced the Terriers with nine points, Schwertner had four points and three rebounds and Ericksen had three points, three assists and a steal.
BU shot 36.4% from the floor compared with UMaine’s 27.6% in the first half.
“In the first half, their zone got us stagnant,” said UMaine head coach Amy Vachon. “At the half, Cort (assistant Courtney England) did a good job and we were able to draw some things up and got some easy looks (in the second half).
“(BU) does a good job of slowing things down and making it hard so I was happy with how we adjusted,” added Vachon.
Former Bangor High standout Emmie Streams and former Hampden Academy star Bella McLaughlin, both juniors, had a chance to square off against each with UMaine’s Streams producing four assists, two rebounds and a steal and BU’s McLaughlin finishing with four rebounds, three assists, two steals, a free throw and eight turnovers.
Streams had two turnovers.
