The University of Maine women’s basketball team regained the services of injured first team All-America East senior point guard Sigi Koizar Saturday afternoon, but the Black Bears failed to capitalize on her return.
They scored only 10 points in the second half as Stony Brook cruised to a 55-41 America East victory at Stony Brook, New York.
The 41 total points and the second-half output were season-lows for UMaine (9-10 overall, 2-2 AE) and the 14-point conference loss was the program’s worst since the University of New Hampshire dealt them a 61-47 setback on March 1, 2015.
Stony Brook (8-8, 1-2 AE) snapped a five-game losing streak at the hands of the Black Bears.
UMaine shot a dismal 19.2 percent from the floor in the second half (5-for-26) and missed all 11 of its 3-point shots.
Senior guard Kori Bayne-Walker had a game-high 14 points to pace the Seawolves and also contributed seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Christa Scognamiglio chipped in with 11 points and seven rebounds and Davion Wingate and Jerell Matthews had eight points apiece.
Freshman Naira Caceres had a career-high 11 points to lead the Black Bears. She also had a game-high eight rebounds and dished out two assists.
Tanesha Sutton posted nine points and four rebounds and Koizar finished with eight points and five rebounds. Koizar had missed the last three games with a leg injury.
The Black Bears built a 31-28 halftime lead but, after Sutton’s layup 28 seconds into the third quarter, they went scoreless over the next 9:20 as they missed nine shots and turned the ball over five times.
Bayne-Walker’s two free throws triggered a string of 14 unanswered points to give the Seawolves a 44-33 lead before Caceres snapped the flurry with a jumper with 12 seconds remaining in the period.
Scognamiglio’s 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter expanded the lead to 12 and UMaine never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.
“You’ve got to give Stony Brook credit, they’re always a good defensive team,” said UMaine associate head coach Amy Vachon to Learfield play-by-play man Don Shields after the game.
Vachon is running the team while head coach Richard Barron remains on medical leave.
“You aren’t going to win many basketball games shooting the way we did or scoring 10 points in a half,” said Vachon. “I put that on me. We, as a staff, need to do a better job figuring out the offense. We tried different things today but nothing seemed to click.
“It’s back to the drawing board (Sunday),” added Vachon, whose Black Bears host Hartford on Monday at 1 p.m at the Cross Insurance Center.
Vachon said one of the issues offensively was that her players tried at times to do too much “one-on-one stuff” instead of moving the ball around.
“We aren’t that type of team. We need to move the ball. That’s what makes us good. We need to do a better job of that,” said Vachon.
Vachon was satisfied with the defensive performance.
“We gave up 55 points and that’s not bad. But when you score four points in a quarter, you aren’t going to win many basketball games,” Vachon said.
UMaine wound up shooting 33.3 percent from the floor (18-for-54) and 15.8 percent from beyond the 3-point arc (3-for-19). Stony Brook shot 47.9 percent from the field (23-for-48) and 21.1 percent from 3-point land (4-for-19).