ORONO, Maine — The much-anticipated battle between the two teams who combined to win the last three America East tournaments didn’t turn out to be that much of a battle.
The defending champion University of Vermont spotted the University of Maine an 8-0 lead but the Catamounts rallied to take the lead for good in the second period and cruised to an impressive 64-53 victory on the Skip Chappelle Court in the half-filled Memorial Gym Thursday night.
Vermont dominated every aspect of the game and built the lead to 18 in the third period and 21 in the fourth.
UMaine closed out the game with a 12-2 run to soften the scoreline.
Trailing 53-39 early in the fourth quarter, UMaine had four possessions to creep closer, but the Black Bears missed two shots and turned the ball over twice.
Vermont then went on a 9-2 run to sew up its 14th victory in 19 games and improve to 3-1 in the conference. It also snapped a three-game losing streak at the expense of UMaine in Orono.
UMaine fell to 8-10 and 3-2, respectively.
Senior guard Keira Hanson poured in a game-high 20 points for the Catamounts, her 14th consecutive game in double figures. She hit four of her five 3-point attempts. She also dished out two assists.
“I was in rhythm. I wasn’t overthinking and my teammates did a great job finding me,” said Hanson.
Six-foot-two senior center Nikola Priede had 16 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists and also turned in an exceptional defensive performance against league scoring leader Adrianna Smith with help from her teammates.
Junior guard Malia Lenz had a terrific all-around game with 14 points, a game-high 10 rebounds and three steals. Redshirt senior guard and Binghamton transfer Jadyn Weltz chipped in with eight points, a game-high six assists and two steals.
Smith finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, four assists and four steals. Her four assists catapulted her into 10th place on the UMaine all-time list in assists with 365 and is now the only player in school history ranked in the top 10 in points, rebounds and assists.
Senior guard Sarah Talon also had 15 points to go with six rebounds. Freshman guard Lala Woods had eight points and five assists.
Vermont shot 47.2% from the floor and 42.9% from beyond the 3-point arc while UMaine shot 41.2% and 25%, respectively.
Vermont outrebounded UMaine 36-23 including a 10-4 edge on the offensive glass leading to a 13-2 advantage in second-chance points.
Vermont coach Alisa Kresge said rebounding was the key to the win.
“Maine does a great job flying in and Adrianna does a great job. That was really concerning going into this game so winning the rebounding battle was probably what I was most pleased about,” said Kresge.
“Malia (Lenz) was killer on the rebounding,” said Hanson. “And I know us guards want to help out and I think we did a good job of that tonight.”
“We were there for each other on offense and defense,” said Hanson. “We know Maine is a talented team so just sticking together when they went on their runs and being able to match and overcome that (was important).”
UVM also had a 14-3 advantage in fast break points.
“Vermont is the best team in the league. We gave them too many open opportunities,” said UMaine coach Amy Vachon. “You can’t give Keira Hanson five looks at the basket. She’s going to knock them down. And our transition defense was not great.
“When you don’t play your best against the best, you aren’t going to have a great result,” said Vachon. “I liked our fight and our battle. We did some good things. We’ll see them again and maybe we will see them a third time. I think you learn from it and go from there.”
“We’ve got to be better, defensively,” said Talon.
After the Black Bears scored the game’s first eight points, the Catamounts took complete control of the game, outscoring UMaine 33-16 the rest of the half to take a well-deserved 33-24 lead into the intermission.
Priede poured in 14 points and she and her teammates held Smith to just four first-half points with two coming when Priede wasn’t in the game.
Hanson scored 12 points by hitting four 3-pointers.
The Catamounts outrebounded UMaine 21-12 including a 7-1 edge in offensive boards as they outworked the Black Bears in the paint.
Lenz had eight rebounds to go with five points, three steals and three assists.
UVM shot 41.4% from the floor in the first half including a 44.4% showing from beyond the 3-point arc thanks to Hanson.
UMaine shot 36% and 30.8% from long distance.
Talon hit all three of her 3-pointers in the half to lead UMaine with nine points. Blauenfeldt and Smith had four apiece.
UMaine will begin a string of three straight road games at New Hampshire on Saturday at 1 while Vermont will host Albany at 6. UVM was without senior point guard Catherine Gilwee who missed her ninth straight game with a foot injury.
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