Graduate student forward Maeve Carroll was baffled early this season when her University of Maine women’s basketball team was 3-3 in America East, with all three losses coming at home.
But after reeling off nine consecutive wins, the Black Bears can clinch the top seed for the America East Tournament with a win at Albany against its closest pursuer on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
“At the beginning of the season, what was frustrating was that the way we were playing and the losses we were getting didn’t show how good of a team we could be and how good we could be individually,” Carroll said.
“I always knew we were better than our record showed. … We knew we could be a dominant team but I don’t think many other people did.”
In addition to their nine-game winning streak, UMaine will also be looking to finish the regular season 10-0 on the road in league play and with its 11th consecutive win over the Great Danes.
But Albany is 13-0 at home this season.
UMaine is 15-10 overall, 12-3 in conference play. Albany is 19-8 and 12-4, respectively.
Stony Brook actually leads the conference with a 14-2 record (23-3 overall) but an America East bylaw forbids a school from participating in league championships if it is leaving the conference and Stony Brook is departing America East for the Colonial Athletic Association after this season.
Even if UMaine loses to Albany, if it sweeps the visiting University of Maryland Baltimore County (2-10, 3-19) in two games this weekend and eventually winds up tied with Albany, UMaine would win virtually every tiebreaker.
Albany finishes by hosting Stony Brook on Saturday.
Carroll said the team’s resiliency has been the key to its road success.
“Even if things don’t go our way, what we have done on the road is stay in the fight and bounce back. We don’t give up and our road record reflects that,” she said.
In their last two road games, against Stony Brook and NJIT, two teams that beat them in Bangor, the Black Bears outscored them 47-12.
“Our starts have been really important to us in those games,” UMaine head coach Amy Vachon said.
“With all the wins, we’re gaining more confidence and that carries over into the next game,” Carroll said. “We’ve been playing with a lot of energy as a team. It’s been really fun for me to see every player gain confidence throughout the season.”
Carroll overcame a mini scoring slump with four double-doubles in her last six games.
“Things have started to click again again for me so I can be more aggressive. I’m finally playing the way I know I can,” Carroll said.
Vachon and Carroll know they are facing a stiff test on Wednesday against the team allowing the fewest points among the nation’s 348 Division I programs at 48.3 points per game.
“We have to rebound and take care of the ball,” Vachon said.
UMaine’s Anne Simon leads the conference in scoring (16.1 ppg) and steals (3 spg) and is also grabbing 4.9 rebounds per outing. Carroll is tops in the league in rebounding (8.6 rpg) and is also averaging 10.4 points and 3.4 assists and Alba Orois is tops in assists (5.7) and is also averaging 10.1 points including 14.5 over her last six games.
Albany’s Lucia Descortes leads the league in blocked shots (1.7) and is also averaging 5.6 points and five rebounds. Helene Haegerstrand (12.1 ppg, 3 rpg) and Kayla Cooper (11.7 pog, 7.1 rpg) are the Great Danes’ offensive catalysts.
UMaine’s Simon and Orois and Albany’s Cooper all had 17 points in UMaine’s hard-fought 64-55 win over Albany at the Memorial Gym in Orono on Feb. 9.