ORONO – When you play great defense, everything else seems to take care of itself.

Sophomore forward Anna James and freshman guard Melissa Heon spearheaded a superb defensive effort by the University of Maine women’s basketball team Sunday afternoon, leading the Black Bears to a lopsided 69-42 America East victory over New Hampshire at Alfond Arena.

James sparkled with her interior defense and Heon was tenacious on the perimeter as UMaine limited the Wildcats to 26 percent shooting – and their lowest offensive output since a 56-39 loss to Massachusetts in December.

Coach Sharon Versyp’s 10-12 Bears, playing in front of 3,246 fans, won for the sixth time in seven games and improved their conference record to 7-6. UMaine, which has held opponents to fewer than 48 points in three of the last four contests, has moved into a three-way tie for fourth place with Northeastern and Hartford and is only one game behind Vermont.

Seventh-place New Hampshire slipped to 7-15 and 5-8, respectively.

“I couldn’t be happier with the defense when you only have one person scoring in double figures,” Versyp said. “Our kids were really fired up and real prepared today and I’m really proud of what they’ve done.”

Sophomore guard Ellen Geraghty paced UMaine with a career-high 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting. Freshman Heather Ernest of Temple posted her 15th double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

Senior Kizzy Lopez contributed 11 points and junior Tracy Guerrette of St. Agatha netted 10 as the Bears shot 50 percent (27-for-54) from the floor. Julie Veilleux of Augusta grabbed eight rebounds and center Eva Moldre played well coming off the bench.

The Bears’ man-to-man defense was the difference. James and Ernest combined to limit the sister duo of Anna Matthias and Maren Matthias to a combined 13 points and nine rebounds. The pair had 25 points and 19 rebounds Jan. 14 in the Wildcats’ 79-72 win at Durham, N.H.

“Last game, we lost a little pride in post defense and they just killed us,” James said. “We’re not used to playing with two people that have that kind of size [6-foot-3], so we really emphasized staying in front and having good, strong, help-side [defense].”

Meanwhile, Heon was clamping down on UNH 3-point threat Heidi Plencner, who was held scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting after pouring in 21 points in the first meeting.

“It was mine and Anna’s job to shut those two players down and, if we didn’t, it would be a ballgame,” Heon said. “Today we did our duty and we played well.”

The Wildcats’ offense was nullified, going 3-for-24 from the field (13 percent) during the first 17 minutes of action. As UNH struggled, UMaine unleashed a balanced, guard-oriented attack that built a 26-point, first-half lead.

“We have a lot of modes of attack, but like coach always says, our offense stems from our defense,” Geraghty said. “Right from the get-go, we had Melissa in the shorts of No. 3. We had Anna and Heather bottling up the middle the entire time.”

The Bears, who have relied heavily on Ernest’s offensive output this season, ran off 18 consecutive points by guards to end the first half.

“I’m just excited and have so much more confidence in our team because we’ve responded,” Geraghty said. “Everybody stepped up and played their role.”

UMaine outrebounded UNH 43-30, affording the ‘Cats only 12 second-chance points.

The Bears started to click eight minutes into the first half. Leading 13-7, Heon’s 3-pointer ignited a 15-0 scoring surge that gave UMaine a commanding 28-7 advantage with 6:44 left in the half.

Guerrette nailed a 3-pointer and Ernest scored on an offensive rebound before Heon sandwiched two free throws and a driving baseline layup around another Guerrette 3-pointer.

Black Bears 69, Wildcats 42

New Hampshire (7-15) Maine (10-12)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Plencner 0 7 0 0 0 Heon 3 6 9

Bushey 0 2 0 1 0 Ernest 5 11 14

Proctor 0 1 2 2 2 Guerrette 3 10

A. Matthias 2 10 5 5 9 Lopez 5 8 11

Jarvis 5 13 0 0 10 James 2 3 5

Caschera 1 2 0 0 2 Moldre 2 3 4

Donohue 2 12 1 2 5 Veilleux 0 0

Rappoport 1 1 1 2 3 Geraghty 7 16

Hennessey 1 2 0 0 3 Sobel 0 2 0

Harrison 1 4 2 5 4

M. Matthias 1 1 2 2 4

Totals 14 55 13 19 42 Totals 27 54 15 69

New Hampshire 17 42

Maine 39 69

3-pt. goals – New Hampshire (1-10): Plencner 0-5, Caschera 0-1, Donohue 0-1, Hennessey 1-2, Harrison 0-1; Maine (6-13): Heon 1-1, Ernest 0-1, Guerrette 3-5, Veilleux 0-1, Geraghty 2-3, Sobel 0-2

Attendance: 3,246