Graduate student forward Maeve Carroll broke out of a scoring slump with 16 points and 12 rebounds to complement junior guard Anne Simon’s 17 points and lead the University of Maine women’s basketball team to a 54-45 victory over Binghamton in Vestal, New York, Friday night.
The win was UMaine’s fourth straight. The Black Bears reached the .500 mark for the first time this season and are now 10-10 overall. They are 7-3 in America East.
Binghamton fell to 5-13 and 1-7 while suffering its third straight loss and ninth in the last 10 games.
The teams will play again at noon on Sunday in Vestal.
The Black Bears used a 12-0 run to close out the first quarter and open the second period to give them a 14-4 lead. They led the rest of the way, expanding the lead to as many as 15 points in the fourth quarter.
UMaine, which has limited its opponents to 40.8 points per game during its four-game winning streak, held Binghamton without a basket for 11:32 during its 12-0 run as the Bearcats missed 11 shots in a row before Hayley Moore hit a 3-pointer 8:15 into the second period.
Simon had six points during the spurt, Alba Orois had a pair of layups and a Carroll basket inside capped it.
The Black Bears used a run of nine unanswered points in the fourth quarter to create their biggest lead of the game at 48-33 with 5:31 remaining after receiving a layup from Orois, a Paula Gallego jumper, two Simon free throws and an Olivia Rockwood 3-pointer to swell the lead.
The Bearcats tried to claw their way back into the game as Denai Bowman hit three jumpers and Clare Traeger added a pair of foul shots in an 8-0 Binghamton run that pulled the Bearcats within seven with 3:03 remaining.
Carroll’s basket in the paint made it 50-41 with 2:48 left but Traeger’s three reduced the lead to 50-44 1:30 later.
But Orois’ layup with 47 seconds sewed up the win.
Carroll, who had averaged 6.6 points per game over her previous six games, also had three assists to go with her 16 points and 12 rebounds.
“Maeve has been really going hard. She had 12 rebounds. And it was nice to see her score some points because I knew she had been frustrated out there,” said UMaine head coach Amy Vachon to Learfield Sports/Black Bear Sports Properties and The Ticket 92.9 FM play-by-play man Don Shields.
“It was a good game for us. Binghamton doesn’t have many wins but they have been in every single game and they play really hard,” Vachon said. “We’re continuing to learn and get better.”
Simon had four rebounds and two steals to go with her 17 points. Orois finished with 11 points, five rebounds and six assists and Rockwood had a pair of threes and two steals. Caroline Bornemann grabbed seven rebounds as UMaine outrebounded Binghamton 38-28.
Bowman poured in a game-high 21 points and also had five rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots for Binghamton.
Traeger chipped in with 10 points and seven rebounds but leading scorer Birna Benonysdottir was held to seven points, eight points below her average.
“We did a good job on [Benonysdottir] but we’re going to have to do a better job on Bowman on Sunday,” Vachon said.
UMaine had a 34-18 edge in points in the paint and held Binghamton to a 36.7 percent shooting night from the floor. UMaine shot 40.7 percent from the floor.