It is down to a sprint.
There are six games left for the University of Maine women’s basketball team and it is tied for the top seed in America East with Albany, a team it beat 64-55 on Wednesday in Orono.
Both are 9-3 in the conference.
UMaine has won six in a row and will take on a Stony Brook team that has won 11 straight when the two teams square off in New York on Saturday at 2 p.m. UMaine will have to win as many games as possible to stay the top seed, which earns the right to host all of its playoff games.
Stony Brook is actually leading the conference with an 11-1 mark but because it is leaving the conference after the season for the Colonial Athletic Association, it can’t participate in the conference tournament.
Following the Stony Brook game, UMaine will host 2-8 Hartford on Wednesday before traveling to the 6-5 New Jersey Institute of Technology (Feb . 19) and to Albany (Feb. 23) before hosting 2-6 University of Maryland Baltimore County for a season-ending pair.
Vermont, 8-4, is also very much in the picture and Albany will play its next two against the Catamounts, one at home and one on the road, before hosting 1-9 Binghamton, visiting 1-9 New Hampshire, and then entertaining UMaine and Stony Brook.
After the Albany pair, Vermont finishes with home games against New Hampshire and Binghamton and road games at UMBC and UMass Lowell (4-5).
NJIT has home and road games against Hartford and UMass Lowell, a home game against UMaine and a road game at New Hampshire.
UMaine owns the tiebreaker against Vermont because it has won both games.
Albany coach Colleen Mullen said she was impressed with the Black Bears following Wednesday’s hard-fought loss.
“[UMaine coach Amy Vachon] has done a terrific job. Her team gets better and better. Certainly, they’re really difficult and a challenging non-conference schedule has paid off for them,” Mullen said. “That has really prepared them. They have a lot of threats and they play with a lot of confidence.”
Stony Brook handed UMaine a humbling 63-44 setback on Jan. 9.
UMaine, 12-10 overall, continues to be led by Anne Simon, who became the 23rd Black Bear to eclipse the 1,000-point mark on Wednesday.
The junior guard leads the league in scoring (16.2 points per game) and steals (3 per game) and has also grabbed 4.5 rebounds. Graduate student forward Maeve Carroll is second in the league in rebounding (8.1 rpg) and is also averaging 10.3 points and 3.2 assists. Sophomore point guard Alba Orois is tops in the league in assists (5.4 apg) and also averaging 9.3 ppg. Sophomore forward Caroline Bornemann is chipping in with 6.3 ppg and 4 rebounds.
Defending league tourney champ Stoney Brook, 20-2 overall, features five players averaging in double figures in Anastasia Warren (12.7), India Pagan (11.7), Earlette Scott (11.4), Gigi Gonzalez (10.5) and Leighah-Amori Wool (10.2).