ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine women’s basketball team had to rally from a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat New Hampshire 67-61 on Feb. 21 and it appeared the Black Bears were in for another dogfight after the first quarter of Thursday night’s America East quarterfinal against the Wildcats.
The Black Bears were leading by just one but outscored the Wildcats 28-13 in the second period to take a 46-30 lead into the intermission and then held UNH to one basket and eight points in the third period en route to a 77-58 victory on the Skip Chappelle Court in the Memorial Gym in Orono.
The 18-12 Black Bears, winners of eight of their last nine, will now host Binghamton (New York) in a semifinal match, Monday at 6 p.m. UMaine has now beaten UNH 13 straight times.
America East Player of the Year Adrianna Smith poured in a game-high 35 points to go with 15 rebounds for her 18th double-double of the season. She also had five assists and three steals.
Senior guard Sarah Talon had 16 points, two rebounds and two assists and freshman guard Lala Woods produced 11 points, four rebounds and three assists. Freshman guard Olivia Alvarez had seven points, three assists and two rebounds.
Junior guard Eva DeChent pumped in 28 points to pace UNH. She also grabbed five rebounds. Camryn Fauria, Maggie Cavanaugh and Elizabeth Lavoie had six points each for the 10-20 Wildcats.Cavanaugh had six rebounds and Lavoie had five.
Smith, held to three points in the first period, erupted for 16 in the second quarter as the Black Bears went 9-for-13 from the floor while UNN went 5-for-13.
UMaine opened the second quarter with a 13-2 run behind Alvarez’s five points, three Smith free throws, a Talon three and a Lizzy Gruber bucket in the paint.
Averie Harding’s basket for UNH cut the lead to 31-21 but UMaine answered with 11 straight points including nine in a row from Smith after a Talon layup triggered the spurt.
UNH had a 9-4 run to close out the half with DeChent hitting a three and a traditional 3-point play and Cavanaugh pumping in a corner 3-pointer at the buzzer.
UMaine second leading scorer Blauenfeldt left the game after picking up her second foul with 2:03 left in the first quarter and didn’t play the rest of the half.
Woods had nine first-half points for UMaine and Talon had eight.
DeChent accounted for 17 of UNH’s 30 points.
