PETERSBURG, Virginia — There will be no national championship for the University of Maine at Augusta women’s basketball team this season.
The Moose fell 76-62 to the University of Cincinnati-Clermont on Tuesday in a second-round game of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association Division II Women’s Small College Basketball tournament at Richard Bland College. UMA (22-8) will play in a consolation bracket game tomorrow afternoon.
Senior forward Mariah Dunbar led the Moose with 19 points, while freshman guard Alisyn Alley added 16.
“Cincinnati is a great club, very physical,” UMA head coach Heath Cowan said. “I think, percentage-wise, we outshot them. I thought we played with them every step of the way. But we just gave away too many shots and too many opportunities to score. I think they ended up taking 11 or 12 more shots than we did and in a close game, that’s the difference.
The Cougars (19-7) move on to the semifinal round Wednesday at Virginia State University in Petersburg.
UC Clermont jumped out to a 20-11 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. UMA managed to pull within four points of the Cougars multiple times during the third quarter, but UC Clermont never lost its lead and outscored the Moose 24-19 in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
Kristi Duncan led the Cougars with 30 points and 13 rebounds. Duncan was nearly perfect from the foul line, going 10-11. Ashley Moore had 18 points, while Tyra Murphy added 12 points for UC Clermont.
One area the Cougars had an advantage over the Moose was offensive rebounds, hauling in 17 to UMA’s 8.
“(Duncan) offensively rebounded like it was the only thing going,” Cowan said. “Really, that was the difference in the game, the offensive rebounds.”
Cowan said he’s proud of UMA’s performance this season, wrapping up the year with a nationals appearance with just eight healthy players.
“I’m very, very proud of them,” Cowan said. “They did a great job for the team that we had to get to the national elite eight. Everybody wants to win (the national title), the reality is there’s only going to be one winner. Unfortunately, it wasn’t us this year. There’s a lot of tears (right now) in the locker room, but we talked about a lot of the positive thoughts heading into next season already.”
UMA was scheduled to play rival and No. 1 seed Central Maine Community College on Wednesday, but CMCC coach Andrew Morong said on Twitter the USCAA is rescheduling the game so conference foes don’t have to play one another in the consolation bracket. The Mustangs (26-3), last year’s national champions, were upset 56-50 by No. 8 Penn State Beaver in a second round game on Tuesday.
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