The University of Maine women’s basketball team has just one more non-conference game left before it begins America East play.
UMaine will travel to The Palestra in Philadelphia to take on the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday in its final non-conference game.
Penn, currently 6-5, is one of UMaine’s 10 non-conference opponents that participated in either the NCAA Tournament or the WNIT last season.
“Playing a tough, non-conference schedule gets us ready for our conference schedule,” explained Vachon, who is in her seventh season as the head coach at her alma mater.
Despite the stiff competition the Black Bears have faced so far, they’re 7-6 during the challenging span and are averaging nearly four points per game more than last season. The improvement has coach Amy Vachon happy with her team’s progress as it looks ahead to conference play.
“This team is special. I love them. They’re great to coach. They fight. They’re a fun group,” Vachon said.
However, UMaine is also giving up nearly three points more per game (63.2-60.3), which is an area of concern for Vachon.
“We have to continue to get better, defensively,” Vachon said. “We need to be more consistent.”
Vachon said her Black Bears have to do a better job keeping opponents out of the paint and dealing with dribble-penetration. Their 3-point defense has also stumbled, as opponents are shooting 29.8 percent from beyond the arc compared with last year’s 26.1 percent.
“Offensively, we’ve been doing a lot of really nice things. We’ve been getting a lot of great shots,” she said.
Even though UMaine’s shooting percentage is slightly lower than last year, the team is taking 6.5 more shots per game thanks to its work on the boards, where it’s averaging 3.5 more rebounds per game. The team is also averaging more made 3-pointers per game than it was a year ago.
Even though UMaine can be a streak shooting team, its ball movement has been impressive because the players are getting a ton of open looks every game.
Having the best guard and best forward in the conference certainly helps.
Graduate student guard Anne Simon, the 2021-22 America East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, is leading the conference in scoring (20 points per game) and is second in rebounds (7.8) and steals (2.4).
She has had two 34-point games, including one against nationally ranked Indiana, and is a four-time America East Player of the Week.
The reigning America East Player of the Year, junior forward Adi Smith, is tops in the conference in rebounding (10.6 rpg), third in assists (4.6) and seventh in scoring (13.7 ppg).
Recently, the supplemental scoring from Jaycie Christopher and Caroline Bornemann has been encouraging.
Skowhegan sophomore guard Christopher, UMaine’s best 3-point shooter a year ago, has scored in double figures in three of her last four games. Over her last four games, she is shooting 50 percent from beyond the 3-point arc (14-for-28).
Senior guard-forward Bornemann has averaged 10.5 points per game over her last four games after averaging 5.6 in her previous six contests.
Junior guard Paula Gallego had 11 points in the 80-72 win over Duquesne on Dec. 20 after scoring a total of two points in her previous four games.
Senior guard Olivia Rockwood (4.9 ppg) and junior guard Sera Hodgson (4.3 ppg) have missed the last three games due to injury, which hurt the team’s depth. Rockwood has averaged 26.3 minutes per game while Hodgson has averaged 16.3 minutes.
One of the players picking up the slack has been graduate student guard Anna Kahelin, who has endured three knee surgeries and has given the Black Bears a solid defender and an inspirational leader through her perseverance.
Windham sophomore Sarah Talon is another player who is an effective defender capable of scoring in double digits on a given night.
Freshman Caroline Dotsey has done a nice job in limited minutes and has considerable promise as a post player.
If the Black Bears can shore up their defense and continue to receive consistent supplemental scoring, they will be tough to beat in America East.