ORONO – It was a rosy first half for the University of Maine women’s basketball team in Sunday afternoon’s non-conference game against James Madison University.
The Black Bears nailed 10 3-pointers en route to building a 41-33 lead.
But the Dukes erupted for 29 third-quarter points, outscoring UMaine 29-16 to take a 62-57 lead after three quarters, and they never trailed the rest of the way en route to a 78-71 victory at the Memorial Gym.
The much taller Dukes improved to 8-3 while UMaine fell to 6-5. JMU went 26-8 a year ago, including a 60-58 home loss to UMaine, and earned an NCAA Tournament berth.The Dukes were the preseason favorite to win the Sun Belt Conference title this season.
The Black Bears were short-handed with senior guard Olivia Rockwood and junior guard Sera Hodgson out due to injuries.
Anne Simon’s 3-pointer to open the third quarter closed the gap to two but that was as close as UMaine would get as JMU responded with an 8-2 run.
Redshirt sophomore guard Peyton McDaniel had eight points in the third quarter and 6-foot-4 Russian center Kseniia Kozlova had six to rally the Dukes.
Kozlova finished with 20 points and five rebounds. McDaniel had 18 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Jamia Hazell added 12 points, four rebounds and two assists. Olivia Mullins finished with nine points and six rebounds and Steph Ouderkirk produced seven points and eight assists. Hevynne Bristow, in her first game for the Dukes since transferring from Ohio State, contributed all six of her points and six of her seven rebounds in the second half.
Graduate student guard Simon poured in a game-high 34 points, matching her career high against Indiana on Nov. 30. She also had seven rebounds and four assists. Her eight 3-pointers are a career-high. Junior forward Adi Smith had 19 points and nine rebounds along with five assists and sophomore guard Jaycie Christopher had 11 points. Caroline Bornemann had five points and six rebounds and three assists but struggled from long distance (1-for-10).
JMU shot a blistering 61.1 percent from the floor in the third quarter (11-for-18) while the Black Bears shot just 31.6 percent and went 2-for-9 beyond the 3-point arc.
JMU sank just one 3-pointer in the first half.
UMaine shot just 12 for 38 (31.6 percent) in the second half including 3-for-19 beyond the 3-point arc after going 15-for-40 and 10-for-24 in the first half, respectively.
“Credit to James Madison. They’re a really good team. They made shots,” said UMaine coach Amy Vachon, nothing that her team had more shots, and forced 17 turnovers and got 14 offensive rebounds.
“When you get those numbers, you think you’re probably going to win the game,” she said. “But we didn’t make shots and they did.”
She also noted that the 29 points they gave up in the third quarter is usually the amount they give up in an entire half.
“They had like 30 points in the third quarter and that is way too much,” Simon said.
Vachon acknowledged that the loss of Rockwood and Hodgson may have played a role in their second-half struggles.
Graduate student guard Anna Kahelin started in place of Rockwood and Finn, who has undergone three knee surgeries, played 30 minutes and 39 seconds which is the most since her freshman year.
JMU head coach Sean O’Regan said he was disappointed with his team’s first-half performance but his Dukes were much better in the second half.
“We wore them down and were committed to chasing them around with all the stuff that they do,” said O’Regan. “We didn’t go zone once in the second half and our team did a really good job staying resilient in the second half.”
Simon torched the Dukes for 18 first-half points thanks to a 5-for-9 showing beyond the 3-point arc. Christopher added three threes on just five attempts for her nine points.
O’Regan said Simon is “impossible to guard. She’s a pro. And Adi (Smith) is really hard to guard. … Amy has done an unbelievable job getting her to where she is.”
UMaine was 10-for-24 from long distance compared to James Madison’s 1-for-3 performance.
Smith had seven points for the Black Bears and Bornemann contributed five points and five rebounds which was the game high through the first 20 minutes.
Simon also had four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Smith had four rebounds and three assists.
Kozlova’s 12 points, Mullins’ seven and McDaniel’s six points paced the Dukes. McDaniel had four rebounds and Kozlova had three. Ouderkirk had four assists.
JMU, the nation’s third-leading rebounding team averaging 48.9 per game, outrebounded UMaine 49-30.
UMaine will travel to the Tulane University tournament in New Orleans and will play Duquesne (Pa.) on Wednesday at 3:30 while JMU will also play Wednesday at Maryland with a 2 p.m. tip-off.