Tamara Simpson made a layup with 10 seconds remaining on Wednesday night, helping Yale University complete its comeback from a 12-point deficit to earn a 57-55 women’s basketball victory over the University of Maine at New Haven, Connecticut.
It was the second straight loss for coach Richard Barron’s Black Bears (8-6), who had lost a last-second, nail-biter to the Bulldogs a year ago in Bangor.
UMaine went only 11-for-18 from the foul line and missed four of its five attempts in the second half as the lead slipped away.
“We don’t want to discredit Yale’s effort, we’ve just got to do a job of finishing out (games),” UMaine assistant coach Sean Smith told Don Shields of the Black Bear Sports Network. “We had them on the ropes a few times and a lack of aggression kind of came back to bite us in the butt.”
The Black Bears were paced by sophomore guard Sigi Koizar, who tossed in 14 points. Liz Wood (7 rebounds, 4 assists) and Sophie Weckstrom tallied 11 points each for UMaine. Anna Heise added 10 points.
Nyasha Sarju sparked Yale (5-8) with 18 points, including four 3-pointers, while Whitney Wyckoff netted 12 points and Simpson finished with 11.
UMaine was on top 42-30 after Weckstrom made a layup at the 17:01 mark, but the visitors would struggle at the offensive end the rest of the game. Yale outscored the Bears 27-13 to wrest the win.
Yale outrebounded UMaine 33-25, despite being outscored in the paint 32-18.
The Bears still led 53-52 with 2:11 remaining, then went up by three points on Koizar’s finger roll. UMaine would come up empty after that, with two missed shots and a turnover.
The Bulldogs responded with Mary Ann Santucci making a free throw with 1:24 on the clock, then answering Koizar’s turnover with a layup by Simpson that tied it at the 1:15 mark.
After a missed jumper for Weckstrom, Yale worked the ball inside to Simpson for a close-range hoop. UMaine did not call timeout and settled for a Bella Swan baseline jumper that missed at the buzzer.
““We don’t want to lose games that we should win,” Smith said.
“I don’t think our focus was there tonight. You have to come out and step on teams when you have them on the ropes,” he added.
The Black Bears held a 34-26 lead at halftime after shooting a sizzling 61 percent (11-for-18) from the floor. UMaine also converted 10 of 13 free throws.
The Bulldogs hung around in part to the long-range shooting of Sarju, who hit three 3-pointers on the way to 13 points in the first 20 minutes. Yale shot 44 percent (8-for-20), sinking five of 12 3-pointer’s, but was hampered by nine turnovers that resulted in 16 points for the Bears.
Wood and Koizar each scored nine points in the half to pace UMaine, which made an early move with a 7-0 run that included five foul shots, three by Swan to make it 15-8 at the 9:44 mark.
Yale got back within five on two occasions, but UMaine was able to maintain the upper hand and led by as many as 11 late in the half.