BANGOR, Maine — Popular senior point guard Sigi Koizar celebrated her final regular season game at the Cross Insurance Center Sunday afternoon with a typical strong all-around performance that included 17 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two assists to lead the Black Bears to a 62-49 America East basketball triumph over Binghamton in front of 2,372 on on Seniors Day.
Sophomore guard Tanesha Sutton scored a game-high and career-high 18 points and also contributed six rebounds, a game-high four assists and two steals as the Black Bears improved to 16-15 overall, 9-7 in the conference, and earned the fourth seed for the America East Tournament at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland next Saturday and Sunday.
Interestingly, the Black Bears will face Binghamton in Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. quarterfinal. The fifth-seeded Bearcats, who beat UMaine 58-52 on Jan. 28 in New York, wound up 13-16 and 8-8, respectively.
UMaine shot just 22-for-62 from the floor (35.5 percent) but overcame it by holding Binghamton to a 32.7 shooting percentage (16-for-49) and by outrebounding the Bearcats 45-32, including a 17-7 edge on the offensive glass.
“I’m really proud of the girls and the defensive intensity they came out with,” said UMaine associate head coach Amy Vachon, who is filling in for head coach Richard Barron while he continues on medical leave. “We didn’t shoot the ball great but any time you don’t shoot well and you still win by double digits, it’s good.”
“We could never get over the hump,” said Binghamton coach Linda Cimino. “You’ve got to give credit to Maine for their tenacity on the offensive boards.”
“Coach Amy emphasized rebounding. Find your man and box out and that’s what we did,” said Sutton.
“We got the looks we wanted but we couldn’t convert,” said Binghamton junior guard Imani Watkins, the conference’s second-leading scorer who led the Bearcats with 15 points. “You’ve got to credit them, they were really aggressive on defense.”
UMaine was up by just four, 44-40, with 7:27 left after Rebecca Carmody’s 3-pointer capped a 12-4 run by the Bearcats.
But Koizar nailed her only 3-pointer of the game, coming off a Laia Sole pass, and then Sole converted from the paint off a Sutton feed after Sole had stolen the ball.
Following a Carmody basket, junior Kirsten Johnson, who had just entered the game for the first time, scored off an offensive rebound and Blanca Millan extended the lead to 54-42 with a 3-pointer off a Koizar pass.
“Kirsten is always ready when she comes off the bench. She doesn’t get a lot of minutes but she makes the best of them,” said Koizar.
Johnson had four points, three rebounds and an assist in just five minutes.
Millan finished with six points, five rebounds and two steals and Fanny Wadling chipped in with four points and six rebounds. UMaine’s only other senior, Sheraton Jones, had four rebounds and a basket.
Watkins had a game-high nine rebounds to go with her 15 points. Carmody had 13 points off the bench to go with four rebounds and three steals and Alyssa James and Kai Moon had eight points and three rebounds each.