Junior guard Sarah Talon from Windham scored a game-high 19 points thanks to an 8-for-9 shooting performance from the floor and the University of Maine women’s basketball team finished the game on a 7-2 run to rally past the University of Rhode Island 57-53 at the Ryan Center in Kingston, R.I. Wednesday night.
The Black Bears improved to 2-1 while URI is now 2-2.
Talon also had three rebounds and two steals.
Senior guard Paula Gallego had 14 points, four rebounds and two steals; graduate student forward-guard Caroline Bornemann had nine points, five rebounds and five assists and senior guard Sera Hodgson contributed eight points and three rebounds.
Graduate student guard Olivia Rockwood had five rebounds to go with a 3-pointer.
Harsimran Kaur’s 11 points, four rebounds and two blocked shots paced the Rams. Anaelle Dutat chipped in with 10 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals and Palmire Mbu had nine points, three rebounds and two blocked shots.
Ines Debroise had seven points, seven rebounds and a game-high six assists for URI and Hawa Komara grabbed a game-high eight rebounds and also had two steals to go with six points.
The Black Bears trailed 46-43 after three quarters but outscored URI 14-7 in the fourth period with Gallego and Talon each scoring seven points.
Talon gave the Black Bears the lead for good by hitting a layup with 5:04 remaining to make it 52-51.
Gallego hit a jump shot off a Bornemann pass to expand the lead to 54-51 with 3:58 remaining.
Talon’s layup with 1:34 remaining extended the lead to 56-51 and Bangor’s Emmie Streams stole the ball 26 seconds later.
Bornemann missed a 3-pointer with 50 seconds left and Debroise grabbed the rebound and fed Kaur for a fast-break layup with 43 seconds remaining.
But Talon sank a free throw with 15 seconds left to sew up the victory.
URI shot just 25 percent from the floor (3-for-12) in the fourth quarter and missed all four of its 3-point attempts. The Rams also missed four of its five free throws in the period.
UMaine shot 50 percent from the floor in the final quarter (6-for-12) including a 1-for-2 showing from long distance.
UMaine will host Harvard on Sunday at noon while URI will entertain St. John’s at 2.
