It has been 364 days since regular-season champion Stony Brook and an injury-depleted University of Maine team were set to square off in New York for the America East women’s basketball championship.
But the COVID-19 pandemic intervened and the game was canceled a day before it was supposed to be played.
Their rosters have changed, but there are plenty of returnees who will get the chance to play a championship game. This time, it is Stony Brook that had the bus ride for Friday’s 5 p.m. contest at Memorial Gym in Orono.
The teams split two regular-season games last month on Long Island, where Stony Brook won 59-54 before UMaine erased a 16-point deficit to prevail 54-49 the next day and all but ensure a third regular-season title in four years.
UMaine is gunning for its 10th league tournament championship while the Seawolves have yet to win, losing in the title games in 2002 and 2014.
It is the sixth straight trip to the league championship game for the Black Bears, who won in 2018 and 2019.
UMaine has won its last 12 home games and its last nine America East playoff games. The contest will be the first championship game at “The Pit” since a 79-64 UMaine win over Vermont in the 1991 North Atlantic Conference final.
UMaine senior point guard Dor Saar remembers the anguish of not being able to play the title game last season, but she said it will serve as extra motivation this season.
“We have been the best two teams in the league the last two years,” Saar said. “We’re a different team this year. We have more confidence. We were the underdog last year.”
The game features two of the best defensive teams in the country as Stony Brook ranks second, allowing only 50.2 points per game, while UMaine is sixth (52.1 ppg).
Stony Brook held UMaine to 34.8 shooting, including 21.2 percent beyond the 3-point arc, in the two games this season. However, UMaine forced a number of turnovers with its press that enabled it to rally in the second game.
The Black Bears pressed from start to finish last Sunday in their 67-47 semifinal win over Albany.
“Even if we don’t get a lot of steals off it, it runs teams down to just 10 to 12 seconds to get off a shot,” said UMaine fifth-year senior guard Blanca Millan, who was one of six players who would have been sidelined by injury for the 2020 title game.
“We’re hoping the press can cause them some problems on Friday,” UMaine head coach Amy Vachon said.
Stony Brook plays a smothering half-court man-to-man defense.
“They are athletic and long and like to steal the ball and run in transition,” said Millan, who stressed UMaine must run its offensive efficiently, make good reads and hit the open shots.
Saar said UMaine has to stay locked in defensively for the entire game.
The Black Bears also need to avoid foul trouble, which plagued them in the loss at Stony Brook, when of 30 attempted free throws, it made 18.
UMaine is led by AE Player and Defensive Player of the Year Millan (21.4 points per game, 7.5 rebounds, 2.9 steals, 2.3 assists) and fellow All-AE first team guards Saar (9.7 ppg, 4.9 assists) and Anne Simon (12.8 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.7 steals) and second-team forward Maeve Carroll (10.5 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.2 apg).
Coach Caroline McCombs’ Seawolves feature all-league second-teamers in guard Asiah Dingle (11.2 ppg, 3.7 apg, 3.4 rpg, 1.7 spg), a Kent State transfer, and forward India Pagan (9.7 ppg 5.1 rpg), along with third-team guard Anastasia Warren (10.1 ppg 3.7 rpg, 2.1 apg). Providence College transfer Earlette Scott (6.4 ppg, 4.8 rpg) has also been a valuable contributor at guard.