The University of Maine women’s basketball team overcame a 12-point deficit with a strong second-half performance to overtake the University of Vermont 57-55 in an America East showdown between two of the conference leaders on Saturday at the Patrick Gymnasium in Burlington, Vermont.
UMaine’s win was its sixth in a row and the Black Bears improved to 18-8 overall and 11-1 in conference play. Defending champ Vermont is now 18-9 and 10-3 after having its three-game winning streak snapped.
UMaine swept the season series from Vermont.
It was just Vermont’s second loss in 14 games at the Patrick Gymnasium.
Junior forward Adrianna Smith and graduate student guard Anne Simon had 16 points apiece, both game-highs, to pace the Black Bears and sophomore guard Sarah Talon from Windham had 15 points.
Smith also had nine rebounds, three assists and two steals; Simon had a game-high five steals and four rebounds and Talon produced five rebounds and two steals.
A pair of sophomore guards led the Catamounts.
Andjela Matic had 14 points, five rebounds and two assists and Keira Hanson had 13 points and three assists. Senior forward Anna Olson had 12 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two steals and graduate student guard Emma Utterback finished with 10 points, four rebounds and four assists.
Olson’s 10 rebounds and Utterback’s four assists were game-highs.
UMaine trailed by eight at halftime but outscored the Catamounts 22-11 in the third period behind Talon’s nine points.
Talon’s 3-pointer early in the third period triggered a 10-0 run that included a jump shot by her, a 3-pointer by Simon and a short jumper by Smith.
She had a traditional 3-point play late in the period and a free throw as UMaine took a 46-43 lead into the fourth quarter.
The teams swapped the lead back and forth until two free throws by Smith gave the Black Bears the lead for good at 52-51 with 3:43 remaining.
Utterback missed a layup and senior forward Caroline Bornemann grabbed the rebound. Seconds later Bornemann hit a 3-pointer off a Talon pass for her only points of the game to make it 55-51 with 2:50 left.
Neither team scored until Utterback’s layup with 32 seconds remaining that made it a two-point game.
Smith was fouled three seconds later and made one of two free throws to make it 56-53.
Talon then stole the ball and was fouled and sank one of two foul shots with 21 seconds left.
Hanson’s layup shaved the lead to 57-55 with 10 seconds left.
Smith was promptly fouled but missed both free throws.
Hanson had a chance to tie it with two seconds left but missed a layup.
“I thought we were resilient. We kept fighting,” said UMaine head coach Amy Vachon. “We dug ourselves a hole early but we played hard.
“It’s a tough place to play and we came out with a win which is really big,” Vachon added.
UMaine forced 17 turnovers and only turned the ball over eight times and had a 14-7 edge in points off turnovers.
UMaine also outscored UVM from the foul line 12-3 as UMaine went 12-for-16 compared to Vermont’s 3-for-4 showing.
Vermont outrebounded UMaine 32-28.
UMaine shot 38.5 percent from the floor and 29.4 percent beyond the 3-point arc while Vermont shot 45.8 percent and 42.1 percent, respectively.
UMaine will hit the road for a Thursday night game at the University of Maryland Baltimore County beginning at 7.