ORONO, Maine — Graduate student guard Anne Simon followed her 33-point performance against New Hampshire with 31 points on Thursday night as the University of Maine outscored Bryant 55-32 in the second half to earn an 80-57 America East victory at the Memorial Gym.
UMaine won its fifth in a row and improved to 17-8 overall and 10-1 in the conference. Bryant fell to 12-13 and 5-7.
The Black Bears missed their first nine field goal attempts and trailed by as much as nine in the first half but used a 12-4 spurt to close out the half and go into the intermission tied 25-25.
After shooting a dismal 27.6 percent in the first half (8-for-29) including a 2-for-12 showing from beyond the 3-point arc, they shot an impressive 62.5 percent from the floor (20-for-32) in the second half including a blistering 76.9 percent beyond the 3-point arc (10-for-13).
Simon had six steals, four rebounds and four assists to go with her 31 points.
“In the first half, they kind of shocked us a little bit with their defense. We weren’t really comfortable with it,” said Simon who pointed out that the Bulldogs switched up their defense between a zone and a man-to-man. “But our coach did a great job telling us what to run and once we figured it out, we hit the open shots. And we didn’t force any shots.”
Junior forward Adrianna Smith notched her 18th double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds and she eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for her career. She now has 1,004 points.
She also had six assists and four steals.
Simon said her teammates “did a good job finding me when I was open” and Smith’s dominant presence in the paint opened up the perimeter game.
“She draws so many people on her, it makes it easier for me to knock down shots (because I’m open),” said Simon. “We’re a good shooting team and if teams are going to play zone against us, let them because we’ll be ready to hit threes.”
Senior forward Caroline Bornemann produced 12 points and four rebounds and junior guard Sera Hodgson came off the bench and poured in four 3-pointers for 12 points. Hodgson also had two assists and two steals.
Junior guard Paula Gallego dished out five assists.
Freshman forward Silvia Gonzalez had 14 points to lead the youthful Bulldogs. Freshman forward Nia Scott had nine points and eight rebounds and senior center-forward Mariona Planes Fortuny finished with nine points, five rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots. Impressive freshman guard Mia Mancini had a game-high nine assists to go with eight points and two rebounds.
The game was closer than the score indicated because UMaine was only up 42-36 with 2:47 left in the third period.
But Simon made a steal and converted a layup to trigger an 11-2 run.
She made another steal and passed to Bornemann for a 3-pointer and Hodgson followed that with a three off a Gallego feed.
Planes Fortuny hit a seven-foot jumper from the lane but Olivia Rockwood found Simon for another three.
Kemari Reynolds’ jumper closed the gap to 53-40 at the end of the period but the Bulldogs couldn’t get any closer than 13 the rest of the way.
Smith began UMaine’s late first-half surge with a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 21-15.
Bornemann got a favorable bounce on her base line drive off a Gallego pass and, seconds later, Simon sank a pair of free throws to close the gap to 21-19.
Mancini fed Scott for a layup to extend the lead but a Gallego free throw and a Simon steal and eventual layup sliced the lead to one.
Again Mancini passed to Scott for a layup but Simon hit a three from the corner off a Gallego pass to tie it up with 21 seconds left in the half.
“That three Anne hit at the end of the half was big,” said Smith. “Our confidence was high (after that) and we came out strong in the second half.”
Smith said reaching the 1,000-point plateau was “cool.”
Simon had 13 first-half points and Smith had four to lead UMaine.
Planes Fortuny had seven for the Bulldogs and Scott and Mancini had six apiece.
UMaine outscored Bryant 28-15 in the third period and continued to pull away in the fourth.
“Credit to Bryant. They threw some things at us in that first half that we had trouble figuring out,” said UMaine head coach Amy Vachon. “But we made some adjustments at halftime and started to hit shots. We had 22 assists and just four turnovers and that’s really impressive.
“And to hit 48 percent of our threes (12-for-25) is incredible,” added Vachon.
UMaine will travel to Vermont for a showdown with the defending league champion on Saturday at 4. Bryant will travel to UMass Lowell for a 2 p.m. contest.