BANGOR – It’s not that the University of New England women’s basketball team was late for Thursday’s game against Husson College.

But the Nor’easters were delayed leaving their Biddeford campus and were still on the Interstate when they should have been starting their warmup.

UNE’s rush showed – when the team took the Newman Gymnasium floor to face a smaller Brave lineup, the Nor’easters didn’t rebound, they turned the ball over, and they trailed at halftime.

But thanks to a second-half rally – and thanks to increased scoring and rebounding from its post players – UNE earned a 70-59 victory, the first game in a doubleheader.

In the second game, the Husson men used two big scoring runs to open up the game and cruised to a 115-81 win over UNE.

The Brave men didn’t need a hard-fought game for their win. The UNE women, however, were down 11 points in the first half before surging to their triumph.

“We had a rough day today,” said Amanda Rodgerson, a former Hampden Academy standout who had 21 points and 14 rebounds in the win. “Our bus was an hour late, we got here 45 minutes before game time. We’ve been starting off really strong and this game caught us off guard.”

Husson had a six-point lead at halftime, but the Nor’easters opened up the second half with two straight baskets from the 5-foot-11 Rodgerson and 6-footer Missy Stults. After Braves guard Kelly Dow scored off a pass from Leslie Weed, Rodgerson converted a conventional 3-point play to get UNE within one point.

Later in the half, with Husson clinging to a 42-38 lead, Stultz scored inside and Michele Plant hit a 3-pointer, giving UNE its first lead of the game. Brewer’s Liz Boone scored for Husson, but with 12:09 to go, Plant drove inside and put the Nor’easters up for good.

The game stayed close until UNE’s 8-for-8 free-throw effort in the final two minutes sealed the win.

The Braves jumped out to an 8-0 lead as the Nor’easters struggled with shooting, but UNE found Rodgerson inside for 10 points in the first half.

Husson was up by nine with less than four minutes left in the half, but UNE cut the lead with a Plant 3-pointer. Weed made two free throws with 43 seconds left, but Plant hit an underhand shot three seconds before halftime.

The Nor’easters turned the ball over 14 times in the first half, and that, along with a poor opening rebounding effort, hurt UNE.

“They were killing us on rebounds, and we should have been doing that [to them],” Rodgerson said.

UNE did pick up its rebounding, and finished with a 49-32 edge. Rodgerson had 14 and Stults 11.

Plant finished with 22 points. Stults added 16, 14 of which she scored in the second half.

UNE guard Abby Calkins finished with eight assists.

Liza Doughty led the Braves with 12 points. Katie Nye added 11, and Leslie Trott had 10.

The Braves shot 24-for-71 from the floor.

“When we look at stats, we just missed so many layups,” Husson coach Kissy Walker said. “I think that was the difference. You’re not going to win by missing 15 or 20 layups. That and the rebounding.”

In the second game, Husson (10-4) used a loss to the University of Maine-Fort Kent last week as motivation for the big victory over UNE (3-11).

Portland’s Robert Pilsbury scored a team-high 26 points as four Braves finished in double figures. Matt Breen had 23, Ryan Rivera tossed in 13, and Tony Greene added 12 (to go with 11 rebounds).

“We came out fired up,” said Breen, who played his high school ball at Rockland. “We were coming off a tough loss after we battled and things didn’t go our way. We were ready to get back on the floor.”

That seemed evident as Husson opened with a 15-0 run keyed by baskets from Breen, Quinson Lancaster, and Pilsbury. UNE countered with a 9-0 surge, but another Brave run made it 24-9.

As Husson bombed away from the perimeter (the Braves went 11-for-27 from 3-point range), got the ball to the 6-3 Breen inside (he made nine of his 10 field-goal attempts in the game), and outrebounded the Nor’easters (50-34), the game was quickly out of reach for UNE.

“They really beat us in every aspect of the game tonight,” Nor’easters coach David Labbe said. “I think we had some pretty good looks, but the ball wasn’t falling for us in the first few minutes. They went on a run, got some easy baskets in transition, and we dug a hole for ourselves.”

Husson had a 60-28 halftime lead.

UNE did excel at the free-throw line, making 26 of its 32 attempts. Most of that came on a 13-for-18 effort from Ricky Sirois, who finished with a game-high 32 points. Kasey Keenan finished with 15 points, all of it on 3-pointers.

Braves 115, Nor’easters 81

U-New England men (3-11) Husson (10-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

Keenan 5 14 0 0 15 Fletcher 3 4 6

Sirois 8 17 13 18 32 Lancaster 4 6 9

Bradley 0 10 4 4 4 Russo 3 6 0 7

Clark 2 6 3 4 7 Pilsbury 11 15 26

Nutting 4 10 0 0 8 Breen 9 10 5 23

Crowley 1 4 2 2 4 Armenakis 1 1 2

Stewart 1 2 0 0 2 Rivera 5 10 0 13

Mills 2 6 2 2 7 Brown 2 3 0 6

Chapman 0 2 2 2 2 Greene 5 7 2 12

Robb 1 7 0 3

Cunningham 0 1 2

Hughes 1 1 0 2

Griffin 2 3 0 4

Totals 23 71 26 32 81 Totals 47 74 10 19 115

U-New England 28 81

Husson 60 115

3-pt. goals: U-New England (9-28): Keenan 5-11, Sirois 3, Nutting 0-2, Crowley 0-2, Stewart 0-1, Mills 1-3; Husson (11-27): Lancaster 0-1, Russo 1-3, Pilsbury 4-7, Rivera 3-6, Brown 2-3, Robb 1-6, Cunningham 0-1

Attendance: 200 (est.)

Nor’easters 70, Braves 59

U-New England women (8-5) Husson (9-7)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

Calkins 0 2 3 4 3 Trott 5 11 0 10

Brown 0 2 0 0 0 Weed 3 14 2 8

Plant 8 19 4 4 22 Nye 3 10 4 11

Rodgerson 9 12 3 3 21 Doughty 5 10 12

Stults 7 11 2 5 16 Dow 4 11 0 8

Roller 0 1 0 0 0 Comeau 0 1 0 0

Kempton 2 6 0 0 4 Hughes 0 1 0 0

VanDeuson 0 0 0 0 0 Turner 0 0 0

Bartolome 1 3 2 2 4 Cole 0 2 0

Scarbro 0 0 0 0 0 Boone 4 11 2 10

Urrutis 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 27 56 14 18 70 Totals 24 71 9 13 59

UNE 25 70

Husson 31 59

3-pt. goals: UNE (2-14): Brown 0-2, Plant 2-8, Roller 0-1, Kempton 0-3; Husson (2-15): Trott 0-1, Weed 0-4, Nye 1-3, Doughty 1-3, Dow 0-1, Comeau 0-1, Cole 0-2

Attendance: 150 (est.)