PORTLAND — You never know how freshmen are going to fare under the pressure of their first playoff game. Will their nerves get the better of them?
University of Maine freshman forwards Blanca Millan and Anita Kelava played like seniors on Saturday afternoon to rally the Black Bears from a four-point halftime deficit to a 57-40 victory over Binghamton in their America East quarterfinal at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
The fourth-seeded Black Bears (17-15) play top seed New Hampshire (26-4) in Sunday’s 2 p.m. semifinal. UNH won both regular-season meetings.
Fifth seed Binghamton wound up 13-17.
Millan scored 14 points, including 12 in the second half, and also had four steals and three assists. In addition, she held the conference’s second-leading scorer, Imani Watkins, to seven points on 3-for-14 shooting.
Watkins, who was averaging 19.2 points per game, also had a game-high nine turnovers.
Kelava posted 10 points, eight rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots to go with an assist and she called it her best game of the year.
“Anita had a fantastic game,” said UMaine associate head coach Amy Vachon.
Senior guard and captain Sigi Koizar paced the Black Bears with a game-high 16 points including 14 in the second half. She also provided a game-high five steals, four rebounds and two assists. Laia Sole added six points and five rebounds.
Kai Moon’s 10 points, three steals and two assists paced Binghamton. Rebecca Carmody had nine points and five rebounds, and Alyssa James had eight points and a game-high 13 rebounds and four blocked shots.
“Millan is long and athletic. She did a great job playing the passing lanes,” said Binghamton coach Linda Cimino. “She was physical with Imani and they wore Imani down.”
“I tried to keep her from shooting and tried to force her to the baseline because I had help there,” said Millan, who credited her steals to having “active hands.”
“I can’t say enough about Blanca’s defense,” said Vachon. “We knew we had to stop Watkins. She’s a fantastic player. She makes them go. Blanca has great instincts and great hands. She deflects a lot of balls.”
The Bearcats took advantage of the cold-shooting Black Bears to score the last eight points of the first half and transform a four-point deficit into a 22-18 lead.
UMaine shot just 32.1 percent from the floor in the first half.
But the Black Bears used a 15-5 spurt to close out the third quarter and turn a three-point deficit into a 41-34 lead.
Kelava’s 10-foot jumper triggered the flurry and Millan followed with a steal and layup before she nailed a 3-pointer off a Sheraton Jones pass.
Following a Watkins layup, Koizar hit an eight-foot runner and passed to Kelava for a short jumper to make it 37-31.
Jasmine Sina knocked down a 3-pointer off a Watkins feed to pull the Bearcats within three but that was as close as they would get.
A long 3 by Koizar and her free throw closed out the third period and UMaine scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to expand the lead to 49-34 with 6:19 left.
Sole scored off a pair of offensive rebounds, Millan had a steal and layup and Koizar hit a 10-foot jumper.
“Their game plan was to key in on certain players and they did a pretty good job of it,” said James.
UMaine shot 57.7 percent from the floor in the second half (15-for-26) after its first-half woes.
“A big part in the second half was we were making shots,” said Koizar. “Blanca got some steals and layups at the other end.
“We had talked about our shooting at halftime. Coach Vachon told us to keep shooting and keep believing in ourselves,” said Koizar.
“At halftime, I didn’t think we were going to make a shot again,” quipped Vachon. “I loved how we came out in the second half. The girls were focused and aggressive.”