ORONO, Maine — The New Jersey Institute of Technology dealt the University of Maine women’s basketball team one of its only two America East home losses last season, 56-54 on Feb. 11.
Senior forward Caroline Bornemann and her Black Bear teammates weren’t going to let that happen again.
Bornemann poured in 20 of her game-high 27 points in the first half, including 16 in the second quarter and the Black Bears went on to post a convincing 81-39 victory at the Memorial Gym on Saturday afternoon.
UMaine jumped out to a 12-2 lead and never looked back.
The Black Bears led 49-25 at halftime and expanded that to 68-32 after three periods.
With its fifth-straight win, UMaine improved to 12-7 overall and 5-0 in America East.
NJIT fell to 8-10 and 0-5 and has lost five straight.
UMaine led by seven with 1:19 left in the first period but outscored the Highlanders 32-15 for the rest of the half.
Bornemann had 12 rebounds to go with her 27 points, which is two shy of her career-high.
Graduate student guard Anne Simon contributed 20 points and 12 rebounds, and junior forward Adrianna Smith had 10 points and 10 rebounds for her 13th double-double of the season, She also had six assists and two steals.
Sophomore guard Sarah Talon chipped in with nine points, three steals and two assists.
Sophomore guard Jaycie Christopher hit a pair of 3-pointers and also had three assists.
Sophomore guard Alejandra Zuniga’s 15 points paced NJIT. She was the league’s Rookie of the Year last season.
Graduate student guard Kenna Squier added six points.
UMaine shot 44.6 percent from the floor compared with NJIT’s 28.6 percent and outrebounded NJIT 48-28.
