BURLINGTON, Vt. — The Vermont Catamounts provided the University of Maine with a harsh reminder Thursday night about the disparity between the two teams.
The defending America East champions lit up the Black Bears for 47 first-half points on their way to a lopsided 80-49 women’s basketball victory at Patrick Gymnasium.
Vermont (12-3, 2-0 America East) bolted to an early 18-4 advantage and kept on rolling.
UMaine (4-10, 0-2 AE) suffered its second straight loss and must now regroup heading into Sunday’s noon league home contest against Maryland Baltimore County at Alfond Arena in Orono.
Coach Cindy Blodgett was disappointed with her team’s performance.
“We didn’t really show up to play from the get-go,” Blodgett said. “When you have an opportunity to play against the top team in the conference, to use it as a measuring stick to see where we are, that’s a great opportunity. And we didn’t use that opportunity.”
Vermont’s talented senior guard duo of May Kotsopoulos and Courtnay Pilypaitis combined for 46 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, four steals and four blocked shots as the Catamounts bounced back from a 94-50 shellacking Monday at the hands of No. 12 Nebraska.
Kotsopoulos scored 24 points and Pilypaitis finished with 22, each of them going 8-for-13 from the field. Lauren Buschmann added 12 points.
Vermont shot 52 percent from the field, going 30-for-58, including a 9-for-19 effort from beyond the 3-point line. The Catamounts also scored 22 points off 22 Black Bear turnovers.
“As a competitor you have to look at that opportunity and go out and grab it, be excited you get the chance to play against a team that went to the NCAA tournament last year,” Blodgett said. “You have to attack it and we didn’t.”
Sophomore forward Samantha Wheeler led the way for UMaine with 13 points and seven rebounds. However, she was limited to 22 minutes of action because of early foul trouble.
“She’s a player on our team that there’s no question she competes every single day in practice and every game regardless of the score, whether we’re home or away, day or night,” Blodgett said of Wheeler.
Freshman center Corinne Wellington contributed nine points and seven rebounds and senior forward Katia Bratishko posted nine points and six rebounds for the Bears.
UMaine’s leading scorer this season, senior guard Kristin Baker of Bingham, played only 17 minutes reportedly after suffering a hand injury in the first half.
UM-Farmington 71, Plymouth 67
At Farmington, Caitlyn Laflin had 24 points and 11 rebounds as the University of Maine at Farmington held off Plymouth State University.
Jillian Ross had 17 points for the Beavers and Ashley Busque chipped in 12 points.
Laura Kent led Plymouth State with 21 points and 11 rebounds.