ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine women’s basketball team saw a seemingly comfortable 16-point lead whittled down to six at halftime when the University of Maryland Baltimore County closed out the first half with a 12-2 run.
But the Black Bears responded by scoring the first 11 points of the third quarter and outscored the Retrievers 18-6 in that period en route to a 61-47 America East victory at the Memorial Gym Saturday afternoon.
UMaine improved to 9-10 overall and 4-2 in the conference and has won all four of its America East home games. UMBC fell to 7-9 and 0-4, respectively.
The Black Bears relied on one of their primary weapons, 3-pointers, to expand their lead to 44-27 in the third period.
Senior guard Paula Gallego hit a three off an Olivia Rockwood pass to start the flurry and Asta Blauenfeldt followed with a steal and a layup to make it 38-27.
Rockwood closed out the rally with a pair of threes off passes from Caroline Dotsey and the Retrievers couldn’t get any closer than 13 the rest of the way.
“All of us are ready to take the three whenever it matters,” Gallego said. “We have really good shooters and we move the ball really well and find the open spot.”
UMaine entered the game averaging 8.7 made 3-pointers per game, which leads America East and is 24th most among the 353 Division I schools.
UMaine finished with eight on 30 attempts for the game, although the Black Bears were 0-for-7 in the fourth quarter when the game was pretty much in hand.
UMBC missed its first seven shots of the third period and finished with a 2-for-11 showing in the period, including a 1-for-7 stat line behind the 3-point arc.
UMaine was 7-for-17 from the floor and 4-for-10 from long distance in the quarter.
“We’ve been struggling to score and we have to figure it out some way,” UMBC coach Candice Hill said. “I have been trying to preach to them that we can’t go on scoring droughts. If you look at any of the games that we lost, that’s what we did.”
Sophomore forward Dotsey paced a balanced Black Bear attack with 17 points, six rebounds and two assists. She led all scorers in the first half with 11 points, including a pair of threes.
“We really moved the ball around against their zone and that makes it so much easier to find that open space,” Dotsey said. “That’s how we beat that zone. Props to the rest of the team.”
It was the ninth time over the last 13 games that Dotsey scored in double figures after failing to do so in her first six.
Gallego finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and four assists; graduate student guard Rockwood had 14 points three assists and two steals; junior guard Blauenfeldt produced eight points, nine rebounds, four assists and a game-high four steals; and graduate student forward Carolilne Bornemann chipped in with eight points, a game-high 11 rebounds and two assists.
“It was a really good team effort today,” UMaine coach Amy Vachon said. “We missed some shots we usually make but that’s okay. It’s going to happen.”
Graduate student forward Talia Davis, playing in just her second game after missing three due to an injury, led all scorers with 18 points. She was the only Retriever in double figures. She also had two rebounds.
Freshman guard Lauren Thompson had nine points and graduate student forward Jaden Walker had seven points, seven rebounds, a game-high six assists and three steals. Graduate student guard-forward Jordan Lewis registered six points, six rebounds and three assists.
UMaine outrebounded UMBC 40-22, including a 17-5 edge on the offensive glass.
UMaine outscored UMBC in the paint 36-14.
Both teams will play again on Thursday as UMaine will host UMass Lowell at 6 p.m., while UMBC will entertain Albany at 11 a.m.