ORONO, Maine — The third time was a charm.
After losing its last two America East championship games that were played at the Memorial Gym, the University of Maine women’s basketball team wasn’t going to be denied again on Friday night.
The Black Bears scored the game’s first five points and used a decisive third quarter to pull away from defending America East champion Vermont en route to a 64-48 triumph in front of a wildly-cheering sellout crowd at the sold out Pit.
UMaine, the league regular season champion, improved to 24-9 and will advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2018-19 season.
The Black Bears will learn their first-round opponent on Sunday night during the NCAA Tournament selection show.
UMaine has won 12 of its last 13 games.
Vermont wound up 22-11.
The Black Bears put four players in double figures led by junior forward Adrianna Smith’s 16 points. Smith was limited to just 22:50 of playing time due to foul trouble. Graduate student guard Anne Simon had 15 points, sophomore guard Sarah Talon scored 12 and senior guard Olivia Rockwood contributed 10 points.
Smith also had eight rebounds and Simon had seven to go with four assists and two steals. Talon had five rebounds and three assists and Rockwood grabbed six rebounds.
Junior guard Paula Gallego came off the bench and contributed nine valuable points, two assists and two steals.
Simon was chosen the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
Senior forward Anna Olson’s 21 points and seven rebounds guided the Catamounts. Sophomore guard Andjela Matic had nine points and graduate student guard Emma Utterback had six points, six assists and three rebounds.
University of Maine coach Amy Vachon called Vermont a “great team” and said she was very pleased with her team’s performance.
“Today we really did take it one possession at a time. We were intentional with everything we did on the offensive and the defensive end,” said Vachon. “Everyone contributed. We nearly had five people in double figures and I think this is the first time we had five people with more than one defensive rebound.
“I’m so proud of this team for believing and trusting. They earned it,” Vachon added.
Senior forward Anna Olson’s 21 points and seven rebounds guided the Catamounts. Sophomore guard Andjela Matic had nine points and graduate student guard Emma Utterback had six points, six assists and three rebounds.
The Black Bears led by nine at the half and outscored UVM 17-8 in the third period. UVM couldn’t get closer than 12 the rest of the way.
Smith picked up her second foul with 4:58 left in the first half and had to come out.
But the Black Bears outscored the Catamounts 14-9 over the remainder of the half to take a 34-25 lead into the intermission.
A Matic 3-pointer at the buzzer prevented the Catamounts from facing a double-digit deficit at the intermission.
Talon scored all nine of her first-half points during that 14-9 stretch including a long 3-pointer just before the shot clock expired on UMaine’s last possession of the half.
“Seeing the ball go through the net a couple times really helped the next couple of possessions not only for me but for the rest of the team and our momentum,” said Talon.
UMaine was leading 24-20 when Talon passed to an open Gallego in the corner and Gallego hit a 3-pointer with 2:25 left in the half.
Gallego then made a steal and passed to Talon for a layup.
Following an Olson basket, Talon scored off a nifty spin move in the paint and then hit her three as the shot clock was winding down.
Matic closed the gap with her three.
UMaine opened the second half with an 11-4 run to build the lead to 45-29.
Simon hit a layup and, after two Bella Vito free throws for Vermont, Gallego canned a hook shot and then added a free throw seconds later before Simon stole the ball and laid it in.
Olson scored on an inside move but Rockwood converted a pair of open layups off passes from Simon and Gallego, respectively.
UMaine expanded the lead to 55-33 early in the fourth quarter but the gritty Catamounts fought back with a 13-3 run to pull within 58-46 with 3:52 remaining.
But Smith scored in the paint off a Caroline Bornemann pass and Talon grabbed a rebound off her own miss and laid it in to restore the lead to 16 with 1:38 left and sew up the win.
“We played some awesome defense today. We made them uncomfortable,” said Simon, who returned for her fifth year because she wanted to earn an NCAA Tournament berth for the first time in her career. “They’re a good team. They know what they want to run. So we had to make sure we had a lot of ball pressure and make them force shots they didn’t want to take.”
She noted that holding UVM to eight third-quarter points was important.
“That was a key moment. We always say we have to come out strong in the third quarter and that’s what we did. We got the confidence. We knew we could do it,” said Simon.
UVM entered the game averaging 59.3 points per game and shooting 44.1 percent from the floor and 31.5 percent beyond the 3-point arc. The Catamounts shot 37.5 percent from the floor and 11.1 percent from long distance.
UMaine outscored UVM off turnovers 16-2 and outrebounded the Catamounts 37-27.
“We knew they were going to hawk our shooters,” said Vermont coach Alisa Kresge. “We were hoping some movement would create some other opportunities. It did at times. But they wanted to make our shooters uncomfortable.We had some other offense we missed on. We know we could have played cleaner offense. And our turnovers contributed to their offense and their energy.”
Even with the league’s top rebounder and leader in assists on the bench (Smith), UMaine’s ability to continually expand the lead was critical.
“While she’s really tough, you take her out and then they play five guards and we have two true posts and that’s a little tough for us, matchup-wise,” said Kresge. “And they had a well-balanced offense today.”
Maine scored the game’s first five points and never trailed.
The Black Bears led 18-11 after the first period before expanding it to nine at the intermission.
Smith’s 10 points, Talon’s nine and six apiece by Simon and Rockwood paced UMaine in the first half.
Olson’s 13 points led the Catamounts. Utterback and Matic had four each.
Utterback picked up her second foul late in the first half.
UMaine had a 20-12 edge in rebounds including an 8-3 advantage on the offensive glass.