BANGOR, Maine — Coach Richard Barron didn’t like the effort and intensity his team showed during the first half of Wednesday afternoon’s game against Central Connecticut.
The Black Bears got the message at halftime and responded during the last 20 minutes.
UMaine scrapped its matchup zone in favor of player-to-player and limited the Blue Devils to 15 second-half points while pulling away for a 62-42 victory at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
“It was a night and day difference between our intensity and our effort in the second half and the first half,” Barron said. “It started with the defensive end. We have to understand that we have to dictate our own tempo, our own energy level.”
UMaine (3-2), which is back on the road for a three-game stint beginning Friday at the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, Florida, locked down defensively after the break while playing player-to-player.
“I think it was just heart,” said senior forward Liz Wood, who was a defensive mainstay. She finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and four steals.
“When it’s more personal like that, and you’ve got somebody [to guard], and you really just want to shut them down, you can just focus on taking your assignment and doing your best with that,” she said.
Junior guard Sigi Koizar led the offense for the Black Bears with a game-high 21 points, 15 of which came during the first half.
Mikaela Gustafsson tallied 11 points, and Bella Swan chipped in with 10 for UMaine, which shot 51 percent (25-for-49) in the contest and came away with a 30-26 rebounding edge.
The Black Bears were without senior guard Chantel Charles and junior forward Sheraton Jones because of injuries. As a result, Barron stuck primarily with a seven-player rotation.
Central Connecticut (1-4) shot only 4-for-20 (20 percent) in the second half, a drastic departure from its 50 percent first-half effort.
Camden Musgrave tossed in 15 points to lead Central Connecticut, and TeJahne Malone finished with 10 points and six rebounds.
UMaine opened the second half with a decisive 12-2 run that turned a two-point lead into a 12-point advantage.
Koizar started the surge with a free throw, then Gustafsson connected from underneath off a feed from Wood, who made a back-door layup off a Gustafsson pass on the next possession.
Koizar’s 3-pointer pushed the lead to 37-27 with 6:40 left in the quarter and elicited a Central Connecticut timeout. Musgrave ended the Blue Devils’ lull with a shot from the lane, but two Swan foul shots and Wood’s fast-break hoop pushed the bulge to 41-29 with 4:42 to play.
Central Connecticut never got closer than 10 after that.
The Black Bears emerged from a tight first half with a slim 29-27 lead. The Blue Devils found holes in UMaine’s defense and went 12-for-24 from the field.
The saving grace for the Black Bears was Koizar, who scored the last six points of the half in a span of 1:25 to provide a needed spark.
“Just being aggressive with it,” Koizar said of her mindset. “If I’m being aggressive, it’ll set up things for other people, and that’s what I saw in the second half.”