ORONO – The University of Maine may have lulled Boston University into a false sense of security with its sluggish first-half performance.

The Black Bears responded by jolting the Terriers back to reality during the first five minutes of the second half.

Seana Dionne connected for eight straight points, including a two 3-pointers, putting the exclamation point on a decisive 18-3 flurry that sent Maine on its way to a 66-43 North Atlantic Conference women’s basketball victory in front of 1,336 fans at Alfond Arena here Thursday night.

Coach Joanne Palombo’s Black Bears ran their record to 12-5 while improving to 5-0 in conference play. The Terriers slipped to 3-11 and 2-3, respectively.

The Black Bears, who had struggled with their offense a bit in the first half, established their inside game from the second-half tap. The hosts complemented their fluid offense with a sticky defensive effort while turning the game around.

“What we tried to do is get the ball inside. I think the guards did a real nice job,” Palombo said. “We wanted to attack them from the inside out. Then from there we wanted to switch some things up defensively just to keep them off step a little bit. The players did a great job of adjusting and really getting after it in the second half.”

Maine worked the ball inside and rattled off the first eight points of the half. Steph Guidi scored twice from close range, then Rita Sullivan hit from down low and Catherine Gallant nailed a 13-footer to send Maine well on its way.

Dionne and Chrissy Strong did a yeoman job of feeding the ball to the post in the early going, picking apart BU’s man-to-man defense. Maine, which is averaging 59.1 points per game, scored 42 in the second half.

“I think the post players were doing a great job ducking in, and I know it’s my job to get it in to them,” Dionne said. “One little bounce pass in there and they had a wide-open lane.”

Then, when the Terriers pulled back into a 3-2 zone, Dionne took advantage. She stepped out to bury a pair of momentum-generating 3-pointers to help the Bears move out to a comfortable 42-26 lead with only 5 1/2 minutes having expired in the half.

“Coach made a comment to us guards (at halftime) that we had to toughen up,” Dionne said. “The first half, they were kind of all over us, slappy-slappy, and we were throwing the ball around a lot. I think in the second half we took a lot better care of the ball. We toughened up and got the ball in the post and everything was fine.”

The Bears were able to disrupt BU’s offense with a variety of defensive looks, including man-to-man and a cohesive matchup zone in the halfcourt.

“We just tried to really use multiple defensive sets, whether it’s pressing player to player or it’s a zone press, whether it’s amatchup,” Palombo said. “The thing that I really love about this team is their confidence on defense. They really embrace it.”

Dionne sparked Maine’s well-balanced offense with 12 points on 4-for-5 floor shooting and contributed six rebounds and four assists. Buetow continued her outstanding play coming off the bench while scoring 11 points, with Guidi and Gallant adding eight each. Guidi grabbed eight rebounds.

Strong, Maine’s floor leader, handed out nine assists and pulled down eight rebounds. Grealy chipped in with seven points and Sullivan was solid in the middle.

Annemarie Olson led the way for Boston University with 12 points, while Fannya Manchak netted 10. The Terriers shot their way to a dismal 22 percent performance from the field and watched Maine outrebound them 27-18 in the second half.

Maine led by as many as 20 points and the Terriers never got closer than 13 after the early spurt.

The Bears had trouble finding consistency in their half-court offense during the first half. That was magnified by the Terriers’ tenacious rebounding on the defensive end.

BU afforded Maine only five offensive rebounds, while getting numerous second chances on the offensive end. The Terriers snatched 15 offensive boards, which enabled them to make up for their lackluster 9-for-39 (23 percent) shooting in the half.

Buetow’s inside play helped Maine open up an 18-10 lead by the 7:03 mark. Buetow threw in an eight-footer from the paint and later made the front end of a bonus to provide the eight-point edge.

However, BU went on a 9-2 run, sparked by four points from Gretchen Klaus and a conventional three-point play by Olson that helped the visitors cut the deficit to one. But Strong’s 11-foot jumper ended a drought of more than six minutes without a basket at the 1:58 mark and Maine took a tenuous 24-23 lead into the locker room at intermission.

Black Bears 66, Terriers 43

Boston Univ. Maine

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

Gourdet 7 1 0 0 2 Strong 1 1 3 2 4

Schmidt 13 3 0 0 7 Grealy 3 1 10 5 7

Watson 9 1 3 2 4 Stubbs 1 0 0 0 0

Aggour 3 0 0 0 0 Bachmanak 0 0 0 0 0

Burnett 2 1 0 0 2 Gallant 8 4 0 0 8

Olson 9 3 5 5 12 Smith 0 0 0 0 0

Huckle 2 0 0 0 0 Rustad 2 0 2 2 2

Charles 2 0 0 0 0 Porrini 4 3 0 0 6

Manchak 14 4 4 2 10 Dionne 5 4 3 2 12

Klaus 13 3 0 0 6 Ripton 3 1 0 0 2

Sullivan 4 3 0 0 6

Buetow 10 4 5 3 11

Guidi 8 4 0 0 8

Totals 74 16 12 9 43 Totals 49 25 23 14 66

Boston University 23 43

Maine 24 66

Preliminary:

3-pt. goals: BU (2-8): Scmidt 1-2, Olson 1-1; Maine (2-3): Dionne 2-2, Rustad 0-1