The University of Maine women’s basketball team has lost a scheduled home game.
The Black Bears were scheduled to travel to Binghamton for an America East game this past Sunday but the game had to be postponed due to COVID-19 issues within the UMaine women’s program.
Instead, UMaine will play two games in three days at Binghamton.
The league announced on Monday that the Black Bears and Bearcats will play on Friday, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. and then play again on Sunday at noon.
The Feb. 5 game between the two teams at the Memorial Gym in Orono has been scrapped. That means UMaine will play eight home games and 10 road games in conference play instead of nine apiece.
The change may have been prompted by the travel distance and their respective schedules. It is 548 miles from Orono to Vestal, New York, where Binghamton plays its home games.
UMaine Season ticket holders will be refunded automatically at the conclusion of the 2021-22 season.
UMaine’s next scheduled game is on Wednesday at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor at 7 p.m. against UMass Lowell.
UMaine is 6-9 overall and 3-2 in America East while UMass Lowell is 4-7 and 1-1. The River Hawks snapped a four-game losing streak with a 76-72 win over the University of Maryland Baltimore County on Monday afternoon.
UMaine’s Anne Simon is the league’s second leading scorer at 16.3 points per game. She leads the conference in steals (2.6) and has also averaged 5.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists. Maeve Carroll is the league’s No. 2 rebounder (8.1 rpg) and has also averaged 10.6 points and 3.1 assists. Alba Orois is atop the league in assists (5.5 apg) and is also averaging 9.6 points and 3.1 rebounds.
UMass Lowell features Denise Solis (9.7 ppg, 5.8 rpg), Kharis Idom (9.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 2.3 apg) and Shamyjha Price (8.3 ppg, 3.9 rpg).
UMaine is 16-1 vs. the River Hawks, including four straight wins.