With America East leading scorer Anne Simon sidelined by an ankle injury, the University of Maine’s women’s basketball team needed someone to step up and fill the void in Saturday afternoon’s conference game against Bryant University at the Chace Athletic Center in Smithfield, R.I.
Senior guard Olivia Rockwood came off the bench and did just that.
The Windsor, Vermont native poured in 24 points on eight 3-pointers, both career-highs, to lead the Black Bears to a 70-58 victory.
UMaine is now 15-8 overall and 8-1 in the conference. Bryant fell to 10-12 and 3-6, respectively.
UMaine launched a school-record 45 3-pointers and made 14 of them.
Rockwood tied the school record for 3-point attempts with 17.
“We took a lot of threes and, [thankfully], Olivia was hitting them,” said UMaine head coach Amy Vachon. “You have to take what [the opponent] gives you. We got a lot of good looks today.”
Rockwood, whose previous career-high was 18 points in a 60-54 win over Louisiana Tech earlier this season, entered the game averaging five points per contest.
She also grabbed five rebounds.
Junior forward Adrianna Smith recorded her 16th double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 rebounds and she also had eight assists and three steals.
Senior forward-guard Caroline Bornemann and sophomore guard Jaycie Christopher each scored eight points and junior guard Paula Gallego had six.
Bornemann also had three assists and two rebounds; Christopher dished out two assists and Gallego secured seven rebounds and had five assists.
Junior guard Sera Hodgson had five points and two rebounds.
Bryant was paced by senior forward-center Mariona Planes-Fortuny’s 19 points and seven rebounds. Senior guard Kemari Reynolds produced 17 points, eight rebounds, four steals and three assists and freshman forward Silvia Gonzales posted 13 points, six rebounds and two assists.
Senior guard Lucie Castagne had six points.
Bryant freshman guard Mia Mancini, who came into the game averaging 14.2 points per game, was held scoreless. She missed all four of her field goal attempts.
The Black Bears broke the game open with a 22-6 run to close out the third quarter that supplied them with a 54-36 lead.
Three-pointers by Christopher, Bornemann and Rockwood expanded a two-point lead into a 41-30 advantage.
Rockwood hit two more threes for a nine-point quarter for her. Smith contributed a traditional 3-point play and a pair of free throws and Gallego also had a basket.
The Bulldogs rallied to within 10 late in the game but couldn’t get any closer.
“We gave up too many fourth-quarter points. We need to close out games better. But I was proud of them,” said Vachon.
UMaine won’t play again until Saturday when the Black Bears host New Hampshire at 2 p.m.
Bryant will travel to New Hampshire for a Thursday night game at 6.