PORTLAND – Another day, another game. Another game, another plateau.

University of Maine center Rachel Bouchard carved another notch in her basketball belt on Saturday afternoon at the Cumberland County Civic Center here. A free throw – her 2,000th career point – with 13:07 left in the second half of the Lady Black Bears’ game against Dartmouth College was another milestone for the 6-foot-1 Farmingdale native. Also, Bouchard, with 32 points in the contest, moved to within 144 points of Liz Coffin’s school record for most points in a career (2,151).

By the way, the score of Saturday’s ho-hummer – the women’s half of the Bath Iron Works Classic – was Maine 83, Dartmouth 45.

Now, back to Bouchard:

Point No. 1,999 also came on a free throw, this one with 15:56 left on the clock. At 14:59, she was fouled again and went to the line for two more foul shots. Both missed, meaning the mark would have to wait a little bit longer.

Bouchard missed two more field-goal attempts before being fouled at the 13:07 mark. She swished both free throws before the game was stopped to honor the accomplishment.

“I told everybody that I just wanted to draw it out a little more,” Bouchard joked. When she turned serious, however, Bouchard also turned typically modest.

“It’s a great feeling, but an accomplishment like that you can’t do on your own,” she added. “You’ve got to have a great team around you. They really worked hard at getting the ball inside today. Yes, I may have scored it, but a lot of credit goes to the team.”

A lot of credit for the Bears victory over the Big Green goes to a team effort from the opening tap. An inside-outside combination of Bouchard and Heather Briggs made the Lady Bears, now 4-5, almost impossible to stop.

After Bouchard scored Maine’s first six points to pace them to a 6-4 lead, the Big Green collapsed on the inside.

Maine responded with Tracey Frenette hitting a 12-footer and Briggs (15 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists) hitting a three-pointer and a 17-footer to put the Bears up 13-4.

While Dartmouth got baskets from Renee Reed (12 points) and 6-4 center Ilsa Webeck, Maine got two inside hoops by Frenette (both from Briggs assists), a Julie Bradstreet three-pointer, and another 17-footer from Briggs to make the score 22-8 with 10:38 remaining.

After Reed led a 7-0 Dartmouth run, an 18-footer from Maine’s Briggs drew the Big Green zone out to the perimeter opening up the inside and sparking Bouchard.

With the score 24-17, Bouchard scored 14 of the Bears’ next 20 points as Maine jumped out to a 44-21 halftime lead.

“We worked against the high 2-3 zone in practice and it was always open in the middle,” Briggs said. “We knew if we kicked it back outside and they (Dartmouth) started respecting the outside shooter, we could get it inside to Rachel.”

Bouchard had 20 points and 10 rebounds in the first half.

Maine hit 32 of 63 shots (51 percent) and outrebounded Dartmouth 43-26.

In addition to her 32 points, Bouchard had 17 rebounds and 5 steals. Carrie Goodhue added just 3 points, but dished out 7 assists and recorded 5 thefts. Bradstreet had 5 points, 5 assists, and 4 steals.

The Maine defense caused 31 Big Green turnovers as Dartmouth misfired at a 17-for-47 (36 percent) clip. Reed’s 12 points led 1-4 Dartmouth while Jen Carter and Kelly Begg came off the bench to add 7 points each.

Lady Bears 83, Big Green 45

Maine women Dartmouth

Name AG G AF F TP Name AG G AF F TP

Bouchard 15 11 14 10 32 Reed 8 3 8 6 12

Briggs 13 7 1 0 15 Begg 5 3 0 0 7

Frenette 11 4 0 0 8 Carter 2 2 4 3 7

Carpenter 6 3 0 0 6 Webeck 7 2 0 0 4

Smith 5 2 0 0 5 Bone 2 2 0 0 4

Bradstreet 3 1 2 2 5 Gibson 2 2 2 0 4

Alley 2 2 2 1 5 Stuebner 7 1 2 1 3

Goodhue 7 1 1 1 3 Fowler 5 1 0 0 2

Towle 0 0 2 2 2 Burke 8 1 0 0 2

Buetow 1 1 0 0 2 Gilmore 1 0 0 0 0

Strong 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 63 32 22 16 83 Totals 47 17 16 10 45

Maine 44 83

Dartmouth 21 45

3-pt. goals: Maine (3-13): Bradstreet 1-3, Briggs 1-3, Smith 1-3, Goodhue 0-4; Dartmouth (1-1): Begg 1-1.