The University of Maine women’s basketball team had an easy time dispatching the University of Vermont two weeks ago in Burlington, Vermont.
It was a different story on Wednesday night as the determined Catamounts gave the Black Bears a terrific tussle.
But UMaine freshman guard Anne Simon converted a critical layup with 1:59 left and later added an important steal, an offensive rebound and a free throw to help the Black Bears hold off the Catamounts 70-59 at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Junior point guard Dor Saar sank six free throws in the final 35 seconds as UMaine, which won the previous meeting 65-47, improved to 10-14 overall, 6-4 in America East.
UVM fell to 10-13 and 4-6.
Simon’s layup snapped a 5-0 Vermont run that had pulled the visitors within 61-57.
“I know my strength is to attack. That can get us easy points,” said Simon, who finished with a game-high 22 points to go with seven rebounds, four assists and two steals.
“Anne is a special player,” UMaine head coach Amy Vachon said. “She knows what she can do. She knows what her strengths are. She does a lot of good things for us.”
After her basket, Simon stole the ball and, after she missed a layup, she grabbed the offensive rebound. That ran the clock down to 1:04.
After a missed shot by Kira Barra, UMaine’s Maddy McVicar blocked a Josie Larkins 3-point attempt and the ball landed in the arms of Saar, who was fouled.
Her free throws made it 65-57 with 35 seconds left and she added four more after Simon sank one.
Vermont missed its last five field-goal attempts and turned the ball over twice in the final 1:59.
“It wasn’t an easy game,” Saar said. “We got some good stops and steals [late in the game] and that made a difference.”
“We made some mistakes at the end and that’s why we lost the game,” UVM junior Larkins said.
“Maine shot the threes pretty well and they definitely know how to play their offense,” she added.
Simon had missed the first game against UVM because of an illness.
Maeve Carroll registered 19 points and 14 rebounds along with four assists and Saar contributed 14 points, five assists and four rebounds. Anna Kahelin chipped in with six points.
Carroll posted 23 points and 15 points, both career highs, in the earlier meeting.
“They tried to double me inside and that opened it up more for our guards. And they hit shots tonight,” said Carroll, UMaine’s tallest starter at 5-foot-11.
Vermont’s starting lineup was 3.6 inches taller, on average, than UMaine’s.
But UMaine outrebounded UVM 38-36 and outscored the Catamounts in the paint 38-24.
UMaine also outscored UVM 18-8 off turnovers and created 12 fast-break points to UVM’s four.
Carroll said the Black Bears didn’t do a good job on the boards early in each half.
“But once we started boxing out, that helped a lot,” she said.
Larkins and Hanna Crymble scored 17 points each to pace UVM. Crymble also contributed six rebounds and five assists and Larkins had eight rebounds and two assists along with two steals.
Emma Utterback netted 11 points and also had five rebounds and three assists. Delaney Richason had six points and six rebounds.
“They hit big shots when they needed to, we got some really big nights from some of them and, at the end of the game, we did a nice job defensively,” Vachon said.
The Black Bears spotted the Catamounts a 7-2 lead before rattling off 13 straight points to build a 15-7 lead late in the first period. But the determined visitors responded with a 15-2 spurt spanning the first and second periods to build a 22-17 lead.
UVM was still up by five with 5:25 left in the half when Crymble, the conference’s second-leading scorer, picked up her second foul and spent the rest of the half on the bench.
UMaine took advantage, stringing together an 8-2 spurt to take its one-point lead into the break.
UMaine hosts Binghamton at 1 p.m. Sunday.