The University of Maine women’s basketball team outscored UMass Lowell 20-4 in the third quarter, including a 13-0 run to close out the period, and went on to post an impressive 58-36 victory over the River Hawks in an America East game at the Costello Athletic Center in Lowell, Massachusetts, late Wednesday morning.
UMaine improved to 9-10 overall and 6-3 in conference play after winning its third straight game. UMaine has held its opponents to 39.3 points per game during the three-game winning streak.
UMass Lowell fell to 6-9 and 3-3.
The Black Bears avenged a 60-55 setback to UMass Lowell at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Jan. 19.
UMass Lowell led 21-20 at the half and Denise Solis’ layup to open the third quarter expanded the lead to three.
But UMaine rattled off the next seven points to take a lead it would never relinquish as Caroline Bornemann converted passes from Alba Orois and Maeve Carroll into layups, Paula Gallego sank a free throw and Orois drove the lane for a basket.
Solis stopped the run with a jumper to make it 27-25 with 5:42 left in the period but the River Hawks would never score again as the Black Bears scored the next 13 points.
Sophomore guard Olivia Rockwood played a major role in the spurt.
She nailed a 3-pointer off an Anne Simon feed to trigger the rally before Maeve Carroll scored inside off a Simon pass.
Rockwood then picked up assists on a Simon jumper and a Bornemann three and sank a free throw before Carroll’s layup closed out the scoring.
UMaine shot 8-for-15 from the floor in the third quarter compared with UMass Lowell’s 2-for-7 and forced 11 turnovers with its three-quarter court press which led to a 14-2 advantage in points off turnovers.
UMaine also outrebounded the River Hawks 9-3 over the 10 minutes.
Rockwood canned a 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter and UMass Lowell never got any closer than 16 the rest of the way.
Rockwood finished with a career-high 13 points to go with two assists.
Simon had 12 points and seven steals, giving her 21 steals over UMaine’s last three games. Simon leads America East in steals. She also grabbed four rebounds and had two assists.
Carroll netted 10 points, five rebounds and three assists and Bornemann contributed nine points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Gallego wound up with six points, nine rebounds, two assists and two steals and Adrianna Smith chipped in with six points and seven rebounds in 12 minutes.
America East assist leader Orois dished out three assists.
Kharis Idom paced UMass Lowell with 11 points and two rebounds. Solis and Shamyjha Price had eight points apiece and Ivory Finley hauled in five rebounds. Price had three rebounds and Solis had two.
UMaine shot 43.4 percent from the floor (23-for-53) and 30 percent beyond the 3-point arc (6-for-20) while holding UMass Lowell to a 33.3 percent shooting from the floor (13-for-39) and from long distance (4-12).
UMaine outscored the River Hawks 23-6 off turnovers and 30-10 in the paint.
The Black Bears forced 24 turnovers and outrebounded UML 31-22.
UMaine turned the ball over 18 times.
The UMaine women will travel to Vestal, New York, to take on Binghamton on Friday at 7 p.m. and on Sunday at noon.
Binghamton is 5-11 and 1-5 entering a Wednesday night game against league leader Stony Brook.