SAN ANTONIO, Texas — The University of Maine women’s basketball team followed up a loss and its highest-scoring game of the season with a win and its highest-scoring game of the season Wednesday night.
Samantha Wheeler had her second straight double-double to lead the Black Bears to an 87-84 victory over Stephen F. Austin State University in the University of Texas-San Antonio New Year’s Classic.
UMaine’s sophomore forward, who hit 14 of 16 foul shots Wednesday, was named to the all-tournament team after finishing with 18 points and 13 rebounds — both season-highs.
“That’s the beauty of being in tournament play is you get to go on the road, spend a lot of time together, and bond off the court. I think we really put together a really great two days,” Maine coach Cindy Blodgett said.
“I really can’t single out anyone in particular as good as our team played overall, but Wheeler and [Kristin] Baker did a great job for us in both games.”
Baker, a senior guard who played all 40 minutes of games against Texas-San Antonio and Stephen F. Austin over two consecutive nights, finished with 17 points and five assists.
“She certainly was our ironman. I asked her at one point if she needed a blow, and she said no,” said Blodgett. “She played within herself and with a certain calmness, being very efficient offensively. She was 7-for-15 from the floor last night and had some big shots again tonight. She wasn’t forcing it and picked her spots.”
The 3-8 Bears snapped a five-game losing streak by receiving contributions throughout the lineup at various points in the game. Their bench outscored SFA’s 32-21, a crucial stat considering the Bears had three players (Wheeler, Amanda Tewksbury, and Corinne Wellington) foul out.
“It’s something we didn’t talk about as far as foul trouble, but we did talk about everyone being ready on a nightly or weekly basis,” Blodgett said. “These last two nights, although we didn’t’ get a victory last night, it’s tough to really pick individual people out. A lot of players came in and contributed in different ways tonight, like Jasmine Rush with her extra passing, and people coming up with big rebounds.”
Two of those rebounds in particular were by sophomore guard Brittany Williams and Katia Bratishko.
“We got a couple key rebounds at the end with Williams on the defensive boards and then Bratishko got an offensive board and hit one of two shots at the end to give us the three-point lead,” Blodgett said.
Bratishko’s free throw with seven seconds left made it 87-84 and SFA’s potential game-tying, 3-point shot at the buzzer was off the mark.
Although Maine committed 24 turnovers to SFA’s 18, the Bears did outrebound SFA 48-46 and outscore the Ladyjacks 21-19 in second-chance points. The Bears also shot 43 percent from the field.
“The entire team together played with a certain looseness on offense which allowed us to score a high number of points,” said Blodgett.
Maine had five double-digit scorers in Wheeler, Baker, Williams (13), Samantha Baranowski (12) and Tewksbury (11 points and nine rebounds).
Maine led by as many as 11 points in the second half and trailed by as many as seven in the first half.
The 5-5 Ladyjacks were led by Jordan Ford, who had 16 points and 11 rebounds.