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The University of Maine women’s basketball team won their tenth straight game on Wednesday night against Boston University. The Terriers came ready to play, and they gave the first-place Black Bears a good game, but UMaine held on for a 59-56 win.
“We knew it was going to be a great game,” said UMaine Coach Sharon Versyp. “BU, obviously, when they’re all clicking, they play very, very well.”
Forward Bracey Barker led the Black Bears with 21 points. She also had eight rebounds in 39 minutes of play.
“Bracey can score when she wants to,” said Versyp. “She just decides some games to do it and other games not to do it.”
Abby Schrader, added 10 points and eight rebounds for UMaine. The Black Bears outscored the Terriers 38-18 in the paint, but BU was somehow able to keep the score close.
“They had a great game plan,” said Versyp. “Their post players did a great job.”
UMaine took an early 10-2 lead. The Terriers fought back and tied the game at 16. After a few lead changes, UMaine surged toward the end of the first half and took a 35-30 lead into halftime.
Neither team could make a run of any kind in the second half. While UMaine led for most of the second half, their lead was usually only two or three points. The Black Bears held on for the win and held off the Terriers, who were hungry for a win against UMaine. Unfortunately first-year head coach Kelly Greenberg her Terriers shot just over 30 percent. They took 64 shots in the game, compared to 48 shots by UMaine.
“I thought we got good looks,” said Greenberg. “We just didn’t knock them down.”
The last time BU beat UMaine was in 2003 in the America East Championship game. The Black Bears beat them in last year’s Championship game 68-43. The Terriers could not get revenge as falling to 6-9 in conference play and 11-13 overall.
UMaine shot less than 50 percent from the free-throw line and were out rebounded. Senior Missy Traversi knows her team needs to do better in those two categories. She says the reason why her team has been in close games is because of poor execution.
“We’re doing it to ourselves,” said Traversi. “If we hit our free throws we win by 10.”
While Versyp was displeased with her team’s rebounding and free-throw shooting, overall she was pleased with her team’s win.
“All-in-all I was proud of this group,” said Versyp. “We’re finding ways to win.”
Versyp knows her team is tired after two close games in a row and a week full of tests before vacation.
“I think mentally our players were a little fatigued,” said Versyp. “Fatigue is going to set in. Next week’s spring break so they’ll be rejuvenated and that will be really good.”
The Black Bears improved to 13-2 in conference play and 17-8 overall. With Hartford losing to Binghamton 51-37 on the same night, the Black Bears pulled a full three games ahead of them in the race for the regular season conference title. UMaine is one win away from winning their third straight regular season championship. They can win their conference with a win on Saturday at UMBC.
The rest of the conference is wide open.
“I can’t get over the parity of the league,” said Kelly Greenberg. “After UMaine it’s pretty well wide open.”
Bangor Daily News