ORONO — A shaky third quarter gave way to a dominant fourth, and that’s why the University of Maine women’s basketball team is moving on to the America East semifinals.
After seeing a 10-point lead evaporate in the third quarter, Maine regained its composure and pulled away for a 65-51 quarterfinal win over the New Jersey Institute of Technology in front of a loud 837 fans in the Pit.
Maine (15-15), the No. 4 seed, will play Monday at Albany, the No. 1 seed.
Asta Blauenfeldt’s layup 16 seconds into the second half gave Maine a 33-23 lead, but the Black Bears didn’t score again for seven and a half minutes. The Highlanders chipped away, eventually taking a 34-33 lead on Marissa Ginrich’s 3-pointer with 2:32 left in the third quarter.
“It was a game where we knew we had to execute well on both ends of the floor. In that third quarter, I thought we struggled at the offensive end executing, but credit NJIT, they kind of amped up the pressure and made us uncomfortable,” Maine coach Amy Vachon said.
NJIT’s lead lasted just 21 seconds. Sera Hodgdon’s 3-pointer put the Black Bears back in front, this time for good. Maine opened the fourth quarter with a 7-0 run.
“To be in this environment, to grab that lead in the third quarter… But much like a championship program does, they responded right away and took it right back from us,” said NJIT coach Mike Lane.
The third-quarter woes came down to simply missing shots, Vachon said, noting the Black Bears were 3 for 12 from the floor, and NJIT only scored 12 points in the quarter. In the fourth quarter, Maine shot 62.5% from the floor. Lane thought his team had strong defensive possessions in the final 10 minutes, but the Black Bears were able to hit shots late in the possession, with the shot clock winding down.
“They’re a team that just wants to go. They want to score a lot of points. They want to run up and down,” Vachon said of NJIT. “When we played down there (a 61-56 NJIT win on Feb. 6), I think we got caught up in that game, and it was really important for us to not get caught up in that, and to really execute.”
The Highlanders actually shot better than the Black Bears in the fourth quarter, making 7 of 10 shots. But six turnovers prevented NJIT from regaining the momentum it had in the third quarter, and Maine expanded its lead. Paula Gallego’s short jumper off a steal gave Maine a 57-43 cushion with 3:42 left.
The Black Bears had a strong game shooting from the perimeter, sinking 10 of 26 3-pointers, with six players making at least one. Blauenfeldt made all three of her 3-pointers in the first half, finishing with 22 points. She added a game-high nine rebounds.
“I feel like we were ready. The coaches have talked a lot about how this is a new season, everything can happen. I think we showed up, all of us,” Blauenfeldt said. “I was trying to make shots. My teammates were finding me in the right situations.”
NJIT struggled at the line throughout the season, ranking eighth of nine teams in the conference in free-throw percentage at .636. Thursday, the Highlanders were just 2 of 9 from the line.
“It’s not been a strength of ours, but it hasn’t been that low. In the third quarter, we had some there that could’ve gotten a little more in the game and put some more game pressure on Maine, but we left them on the line,” Lane said.
The Black Bears led 31-23 at the half. Hodgson scored 29 seconds into the second quarter to cap an 8-0 run and give the Black Bears their largest lead of the first half, 21-10. The Highlanders responded, cutting Maine’s lead to 27-21 on a 3-pointer from Enya Maguire with 2:56 left in the half.
Caroline Bornemann, who on Wednesday was named first-team all-conference, added 15 points and seven assists for Maine, while Hodgson scored 11.
“Caroline, we knew they were going to throw a lot of people at her, so for her to come up with seven assists is great,” Vachon said.
Alejandra Zuniga led NJIT with 14 points.
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