Grover takes her shot as Black Bears’ middleman

ORONO – Throughout its history, the University of Maine women’s basketball team has been blessed with outstanding centers.

Most recently, Stacey Porrini helped the Black Bears establish themselves as a national-level competitor from 1993-97, while Jamie Cassidy proved a dominating force in the middle from 1996-2000 on her way to the WNBA.

Suddenly, UMaine finds itself in need of a leader in the post. The leading candidate for the job appears to be sophomore Christy Grover of Bucksport.

While the motion offense implemented by first-year coach Sharon Versyp is designed to spread out the scoring, it also can create shots for certain players depending upon the matchups the Bears want to exploit.

Grover’s performance in UMaine’s two exhibition victories seems to indicate she is ready to make a difference for the Bears.

Coming off an 8-for-8 shooting effort and a game-high 18 points in Monday’s 85-68 win over a National Women’s Basketball League all-star team, Grover is averaging 11.5 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.5 blocked shots and 1 steal.

“When I saw her this summer – she worked camps – just seeing her work habits and her shooting ability, she has a lot of possibilities and we need her on the floor consistently,” said Versyp, who lauded Grover’s willingness to practice intensely every day.

The mobile, 6-foot-2 center played sparingly last season. She appeared in 19 games, averaging 5.8 minutes per contest. With one season under her belt and a new coaching philosophy under which she hopes to flourish, Grover is playing with a renewed sense of confidence.

Grover is joined inside by Eva Moldre. The 6-3 junior power player contributed seven points and a team-high eight rebounds in Monday’s contest, despite playing only 10 minutes.

Bears refocus as opener looms

Versyp came away from Monday’s game realizing the Bears must continue to improve, especially with their season opener against Fordham scheduled for Sunday at Alfond Arena.

“My concern always is boxing out, hitting the offensive boards and taking care of the ball,” Versyp said. “Those are the three things that are going to make us successful.”

UMaine outrebounded the NWBL team 55-52, but the visitors piled up 26 offensive boards and scored 23 second-chance points as a result. The Bears also committed 20 turnovers, 13 of them by guards.

“I think the refocus started right after the game,” Versyp said Monday night. “They’re all ready to be re-committed. We had a nice little chat after the game just to refocus them and they were right in tune with me.”

Maine defenseman suspended

University of Maine sophomore defenseman Cliff Loya has been suspended for two games after being picked up for operating under the influence over the weekend.

He will miss Friday night’s Hockey East game at UMass-Lowell and a Tuesday night non-conference game at Cornell University.

“We have a code of conduct [for student-athletes] and he violated the code,” said Maine coach Shawn Walsh. “I met with the administration and we feel it’s important to be consistent when dealing with situations like this.

Loya was stopped 3:20 a.m. Sunday morning after his 1991 Jeep Cherokee ran through a stop sign at the intersection of Squapan Road and College Avenue.

According to police, Loya performed poorly on field sobriety tests and the officer discovered an open and partially full bottle of rum in the Cherokee. He was arrested and an Intoxilyzer test registered his blood-alcohol content at 0.17 percent.

Authorities were also looking into whether Loya had a forged driver’s license.

“As a team, we had a long meeting to talk about this. It is a problem on college campuses everywhere,” added Walsh. “Cliff obviously feels very bad about it, as he should, and now he will have to face the consequences.”

The 19-year-old Loya, a Pittsburgh native, had played in all eight games this season. He hadn’t registered a point.

He will be replaced in the lineup by junior defenseman Eric Turgeon of Augusta.

Turgeon had played in Maine’s first six games before losing his spot to freshman Francis Nault.

Loya, who had five assists in 31 games last year, will be eligible to return for a non-conference game at Brown University a week from Friday.

News reporter Doug Kesseli also contributed to this report.