Fifth-year senior forward Adrianna Smith hit a career-high four 3-pointers en route to a game-high 32 points and freshman guard Olivia Alvarez scored a career-high 16 points as the University of Maine women’s basketball team posted its 11th straight win over New Hampshire, 73-51, at Lundholm Gym in Durham, N.Y. on Saturday afternoon.
UMaine is now 9-10 overall and 4-2 in America East while UNH fell to 6-12 and 0-5, respectively.
UMaine bounced back from Thursday’s 64-53 home loss to Vermont with its sixth win over its last eight contests.
UNH has lost five straight and it has now lost its last six home games against UMaine.
The Black Bears used a 16-4 run to close out the first half and take a 31-18 lead into the intermission and then scored 23 of the first 31 points in the third period to swell the lead to a comfortable 54-26 advantage.
UMaine forced 22 turnovers in the game which led to a 25-1 edge in points off turnovers.
UMaine only turned the ball over eight times.
UMaine shot a season-high 45.8 percent beyond the 3-point arc (11-for-24) and it was just the second time this season the Black Bears hit double-digit threes. UMaine entered the game shooting 27 percent from long distance.
Black Bears head coach Amy Vachon told Black Bear Sports Properties/Van Wagner play-by-play man Don Shields that hitting threes was one of the keys to the victory.
“When Adrianna goes four-for-four on threes, you know you are going to have a good day,” said Vachon. ”And our defense was really good. Forcing 22 turnovers was great.”
Smith finished with nine rebounds and four assists to go with her 32 points. She is averaging 26.7 points over her last six games and has now had 10 games with 20 or more points this season including three with 30 or more over her last six contests.
Alvarez had three rebounds, three assists and two steals to go with her 16 points. She hit 4 of her six 3-pointers.
“Olivia does a lot of things for us that don’t show up on the stat sheet,” said Vachon. “She was hitting her shots today which was awesome.”
Senior guard Sarah Talon contributed eight points, four rebounds and two steals and senior point guard Asta Blauenfeldt produced eight points, three assists and three steals.
Junior guard Maggie Cavanaugh paced UNH with 17 points, seven rebounds and two assists. Senior guard Lucia Melero Sabat had 10 points and four rebounds. Junior guard Eva DeChent, who entered the game as the conference’s second-leading scorer behind Smith, was held to six points which was 13 below her average. She had three rebounds and two assists.
Freshman guard Carolina Williams had six points and two rebounds and junior guard-forward Katie Ledden grabbed eight rebounds and had a basket.
Both teams are back in action on Thursday as UMaine will visit Albany for a 6:30 contest and UNH will travel to Binghamton for a 6 p.m. game.
Smith scores game-high 32 points to lead UMaine women’s basketball past New Hampshire
