Fresh off Sunday’s momentous America East victory at Vermont, the University of Maine women’s basketball team is taking a much-needed breather.

Coach Sharon Versyp has rewarded the Black Bears, giving them Monday and Tuesday off before beginning preparations for Sunday’s 1 p.m. game against New Hampshire at Alfond Arena in Orono.

With only nine players on the roster and reserve guard Erica Sobel scheduled to rejoin the softball team full-time next week, the Bears can use a little extra time off as they prepare for the stretch run.

“We’ve been going at it really hard,” Versyp said Monday. “I think this is a great time for them to take a step back, get away from basketball for a couple days, get re-energized and get exited about practice again on Wednesday.”

UMaine has six regular-season games remaining, three of which are home games against UNH, Boston University and Northeastern. Suddenly, the Bears’ postseason prospects appear much brighter.

UMaine, which snapped a four-game losing streak to Vermont, has now won five of its last six while improving to 9-12 overall and 6-6 in America East play. The Bears have moved up to fifth place in the league standings, a mere half-game behind 6-5 Northeastern.

In fact, UMaine is only 11/2 games behind third-place Vermont (7-4) two games behind second-place Drexel (8-4) with three weekends remaining. The Bears continue to position themselves for the America East Championship, scheduled March 7-10 at Burlington, Vt., but they can’t become complacent.

“We’ve got to plug ahead,” Versyp said. “Just because we’ve won five out of the last six doesn’t mean we can sit back and think about how well we’ve been playing.”

Ernest double-double streak ends

The extra defensive attention paid by Vermont to UMaine freshman Heather Ernest on Sunday helped end her streak of consecutive double-doubles at eight – barely.

Ernest, a forward from Temple, scored 12 points against the Catamounts but pulled down only nine rebounds. It was the first time since the Jan. 5 game against Vermont that Ernest failed to grab at least 10 rebounds in a game.

However, she averaged 14 points and 11 rebounds to claim America East Rookie of the Week honors for the fourth week in a row. Ernest, who appears to be a leading contender for league Rookie of the Year, continues to rank among the nation’s leaders with her 14 double-doubles this season.

Ernest leads UMaine in scoring (14.4 points per game), rebounds (11.0), field-goal percentage (.482) and average minutes played (31.6). In America East, she ranks third in rebounding, seventh in scoring and free-throw percentage (.828) and ninth in field-goal percentage and blocked shots (0.76).

Ernest went into last week ranked 10th in Division I in rebounding.

She now needs 25 points to pass Stephanie Guidi (327) and move into fifth place among UMaine’s all-time leading freshman scorers.

Tracy Guerrette heating up

Tracy Guerrette of St. Agatha is coming off a career performance after scoring 22 points on the strength of 6-for-8 3-point shooting in Sunday’s win at Vermont.

Guerrette tied a school single-game mark with the six 3-pointers and also provided six rebounds and six assists in her best outing as a Black Bear.

The junior co-captain, who now leads UMaine with a .415 3-point percentage (22-for-53), has begun asserting herself more on the offensive end.

“I think that shows a sign of, hopefully, a maturing team,” Versyp said. “There’s a lot of confidence among the team members. They really are disciplined and understand their roles now.”