ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine women’s basketball team got some payback in its home opener on Sunday afternoon.
After being held scoreless in the second period in a 67-54 loss to the University of Massachusetts a year ago, the Black Bears handed the Minutewomen a 69-48 setback at the Memorial Gym in Orono.
UMaine improved to 2-1 while UMass, which graduated its top six scorers off last year’s 27-7 WNIT team, fell to 1-2.
UMaine led by 20 at the half and survived an 8-0 run by UMass in the third period in which the Black Bears missed their first six shots and turned the ball over four times.
Olivia Rockwood’s 3-pointer snapped the drought and triggered a 17-3 run that put the game away for the Black Bears.
“That definitely opened up the basket a little but I also think we just settled back in our defense and our offense took care of the ball a little better and that definitely helped us get back into a rhythm,” said UMaine senior guard-forward Caroline Bornemann, who had 10 points, six rebounds and three assists along with two blocked shots and a steal.
Graduate student guard Anne Simon’s 27 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals led the Black Bears. Sophomore guard Sarah Talon from Windham had 10 points and Rockwood had eight points. Adrianna Smith had seven points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Stephanie Kulesza’s 15 points and four rebounds and Bre Bellamy’s 11 points and six rebounds led UMass, which has restocked its roster through the NCAA transfer portal.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” said Simon. “We just had to stick to the game plan. We saw in our past two games how big a difference the defense can be for us. We knew we had to play defense in order to get stops and we did a good job of that.”
“It all starts on defense and we took it from there,” said Bornemann.
UMaine limited UMass to a 38.8 percent shooting percentage from the floor and outrebounded the Minutewomen 41-26.
UMaine shot 45.2 percent from the floor and hit nine 3-pointers which equaled its total in the first two games combined. UMaine shot 9-for-23 after going 9-for-51 in its first two games.
“Offensively, we just moved the ball around and made the threes that we didn’t make the past two games so that was really good for us,” Simon added.
The Black Bears missed their first three field goal attempts but made 10 of the next 12 to close out the first period with a 23-9 lead.
The Minutewomen used a 9-3 run to open the second period to close to within eight but the Black Bears outscored them 16-4 the rest of the half to take a 42-22 lead into the intermission.
On one possession with three minutes left in the half, the Black Bears grabbed three successive offensive rebounds before Bornemann buried a 3-pointer on the fourth possession.
Simon had 15 points in the first half and she also had six rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Bornemann contributed 10 points, three rebounds and two assists along with a steal.
Talon had eight points and two rebounds to go with a steal and a blocked shot.
UMaine shot 48.6 percent from the floor including a 3-for-7 showing beyond the 3-point arc.
UMaine also outrebounded UMass 20-12 and forced 11 turnovers while turning the ball over just four times.
Lilly Taulelei’s six points and five apiece by Kristin Williams and Jermany Mapp paced the Minutewomen.
The Black Bears will host another 2022-23 WNIT team from the Atlantic 10 that thumped them a year ago (63-43) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. when the 2-0 University of Rhode Island visits Orono. URI was 26-7 a year ago.
UMass hosts Harvard on Thursday at 6 p.m.