Sophomore forward Alexis Hill scored a game- and career-high 25 points and also contributed six steals and four rebounds on Saturday afternoon as Northeastern University extended its winning streak to four games with a 66-58 non-conference women’s basketball victory over the University of Maine.
The win for the Huskies (4-6) came at the expense of a Black Bear team that turned the ball over a season-high 24 times. It was Northeastern’s first victory in three visits to the Cross Insurance.
Coach Amy Vachon saw some positives from her UMaine team, which fell to 4-9.
“Credit to Northeastern. They made the plays they needed to make to win,” Vachon said. “But there are a lot of good things going on with our team. A lot of what happened negatively is very controllable. The turnovers we made we can control.”
Vachon said the Black Bears also can do a better job converting layups. They missed eight of their 19 layups and several came at important times in the game.
“It was not a good game. We didn’t take care of the ball,” UMaine junior point guard Dor Saar said. “I can do a better job and the team can do a better job. They got easy baskets [off our turnovers].”
Two turnovers proved to be especially costly.
After the 5-foot-11 Hill scored inside to make it 57-50 with 4:36 remaining, she stole a Saar pass and went the length of the court to lay it in. Seconds later, Hill stole an Anne Simon pass and that led to a short jump shot by Stella Clark to make it 61-50 with 3:31 to play.
UMaine didn’t get closer than six the rest of the way.
Northeastern finished with 18 steals and a 21-13 edge in points off turnovers.
“That’s a new thing for us. We have the ability to get a lot more pressure this season. We have a lot more height on the defensive end,” Northeastern coach Kelly Cole said moments after helping break up a postgame scuffle between two players in the Northeastern locker room.
“We pride ourselves on that ball pressure,” said NU senior guard Shannon Todd of York, who scored six points, all in the second half.
The Huskies also capitalized on their height advantage, outscoring UMaine 44-24 in the paint.
“That’s the area we wanted to attack,” Todd said. “We have great post players and Maine wanted to play behind [our post players].”
Clark finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Ayanna Dublin posted 12 points, eight rebounds and four steals.
Senior guard Maddy McVicar of Calais, playing with a brace on her injured right knee, scored 16 points to pace the Black Bears. Freshman Simon registered 14 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals. Junior Maeve Carroll added 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds and Saar had eight points, seven assists and five rebounds.
University of Delaware transfer Gaddy Lefft, who had been sidelined with an Achilles tendon injury, made her UMaine debut and netted seven points and hauled down four rebounds in 14 minutes. She also had a steal and an assist.
UMaine went 8-for-24 from the 3-point arc while NU was 0-for-7.
Northeastern outscored UMaine 20-13 in the third period to transform a four-point deficit into a 49-46 lead and the Huskies scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to swell the advantage to 55-46.
A last-second Simon 3-pointer pulled UMaine within three after three periods but the Black Bears didn’t score again until Saar fed McVicar for a layup with 5:31 left to make it 55-48.
The first half featured a series of runs for both teams with UMaine taking a 33-29 lead into the intermission.
UMaine travels to Drexel University in Philadelphia for a 4:30 p.m. game on Dec. 30.