The University of Massachusetts’ women’s basketball team outscored the University of Maine 24-0 in the second quarter and breezed to an easy 67-54 victory over the Black Bears at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, on Monday night.
The final score was misleading because UMass led 39-12 at the half and proceeded to score the first seven points of the third quarter to build the lead to 46-12.
UMaine missed 15 consecutive shots during UMass’ 31-0 run.
UMaine went 12:23 without scoring until Adrianna Smith finally ended the drought with 7:37 left in the third period by converting a layup.
UMass, now 2-1 after coming off a 74-65 loss to the No. 5 University of Tennessee Volunteers last Thursday and a season-opening 72-57 win over Central Connecticut State, made short work of the Black Bears in the second period after a competitive first quarter.
UMaine fell to 1-1.
Leading 15-12 after the first 10 minutes, UMass connected on 11 of its 20 shots in the second quarter while the Black Bears missed all 12 of their field goal attempts including eight 3-pointers.
The Black Bears were also outrebounded 16-3 in the forgettable second quarter.
UMass, coming off a school-record 26-win campaign and its first Atlantic 10 championship, returned 10 players off last year’s team including three All-Atlantic 10 players. That included the school’s first-ever A-10 Player of the Year in 6-foot-1 forward Sam Breen.
The Minutewomen, who were chosen to win the conference title in the preseason poll, lost to No. 5 Notre Dame 89-78 in their NCAA Tournament game in Norman, Oklahoma, a year ago.
UMaine outscored UMass 42-28 in the second half but the Minutewomen played a lot of their reserves.
Sydney Taylor led UMass with 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Angelique Ngalakulondi finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds and Ber’Nyah Mayo, Makennah White and Breen produced 11 points apiece.
Breen grabbed 10 rebounds, White hauled down seven and Mayo had six as the taller Minutewomen outrebounded UMaine 50-28 including a 19-7 edge on the offensive glass.
UMass outscored UMaine 50-18 in the paint.
Olivia Rockwood’s 15 points paced the Black Bears. She nailed five 3-pointers for the second straight game.
Smith had a career-high 10 points to go with seven rebounds and four assists.
Anne Simon added eight points, five rebounds and three steals and Skowhegan freshman Jaycie Christopher scored her first eight points as a Black Bear. Abbe Laurence scored six points and Windham freshman Sarah Talon had a basket for her first two career points.
Caroline Bornemann had six rebounds and two steals but didn’t score.
“UMass is a fantastic team. You can tell they have a lot of experience,” said UMaine coach Amy Vachon to Van Wagner/Black Bear Sports Properties play-by-play man Don Shields. “I was very disappointed with our toughness in the second quarter and early in the third quarter. We kept getting hit and we never punched back.”
UMaine will host Yale in its home opener on Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Memorial Gym in Orono.
