AUGUSTA – UMaine-Farmington coach Jamie Beaudoin said his team had its growing pains at the beginning of the year.

After all, the Beavers have six freshmen and just one senior on their roster. Those young players displayed all the maturity and savvy of veterans Monday night, knocking off top-ranked Saint Joseph’s of Standish 67-61 at the Augusta Civic Center and earning the Maine Athletic Conference tournament title. The Beavers advance to the NAIA Division II national tournament, set for March 6-12 in Sioux City, Iowa.

Freshman Kate LaHaye, a former Belfast High star, scored seven points over the final three minutes, including a 3-pointer with 1:15 remaining that gave the Beavers a 62-59 lead. UM-Farmington held on from there to earn its first trip to the national tournament since 1998.

“At the beginning of the year, a lot of the freshmen were not familiar with college basketball. … But they’ve shown a big improvement throughout the year. This is a sign of good things to come,” said Beaudoin, a former Orono High standout.

UM-Farmington ended the Monks two-year reign as MAC champions and handed them just their third loss of the year against 23 wins. The Beavers improved to 18-8.

St. Joseph’s coach Mike McDevitt said his team has “no chance” for an at-large berth in the national tournament.

LaHaye, a 5-11 forward, played 32 minutes off the bench and finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

The Beavers trailed 57-53 when LaHaye sparked the rally, nailing an 11-foot jumper off a Megan Woodcock feed with three minutes to go. She converted an offensive rebound 45 seconds later to even the score.

A Jocelyn Sawyer basket on a pass from Woodcock put UM-Farmington ahead, but Tara Gagnon answered for the Monks with a pair of free throws to make it 59-59 with 1:29 remaining.

On UM-Farmington’s next trip down the floor, Rachel Bard, a 5-6 senior guard, scooped up an offensive rebound and shoveled it to LaHaye, who drained a 3-pointer to put the Beavers ahead for good.

Saint Joseph’s Stacey Gelinas tossed in a runner to slash the lead to one, and Bard tried to answer with a 3-pointer. Bard missed, but she stole the ball seconds later and drove, drew the foul, and converted both free throws to push the lead to three with 29.4 seconds remaining. Freshman Cheryl Kempton and Bard hit 3-of-4 free throws for the final margin.

Bard said her missed 3-pointer motivated her to make the steal.

“I was so mad at myself. … I had to do something to make up for it. I couldn’t think of a better team to win the MAC with. No one played like freshmen,” Bard said.

Other freshmen with key roles in the win were starting forward Desirae Haines (seven points, seven rebounds) and Amanda Pepin and Kempton, who combined for 23 minutes and six points off the bench.

Saint Joseph’s defeated UM-Farmington twice during the year, 74-57 on Nov. 19 but by just five points on Jan. 20. Beaudoin said the Beavers learned from their losses.

“We knew we needed to slow down Gelinas. … especially her penetration. And we knew we needed to keep them under 70 points. We did a good job defensively and worked really hard,” Beaudoin said.

Gelinas, the MAC Player of Year, finished with 20 points and handed out seven assists.

McDevitt said it was unusual for his team to score only 61 points.

“It wasn’t any one thing that sticks in my mind that we didn’t do right. … I’m sure their defense contributed to it but I couldn’t put a finger on what went wrong,” McDevitt said.

Junior Woodcock paced the Beaver offense with 16 points, 10 in the first half. Sawyer added 11 and Bard finished with 10.

Gagnon tossed in 13 points and had nine rebounds for the Monks. Sue Picard notched nine points and 11 rebounds.

UM-Farmington outrebounded Saint Joseph’s 48-37.

BEAVERS 67, MONKS 61

UM-Farmington (18-8) St. Joseph’s (23-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Bard 1 7 8 11 10 Pelkey 2 4 2 8

Sawyer 4 7 2 2 11 T. Gagnon 4 11 5 8 13

Woodcock 5 17 4 4 16 Picard 4 13 9

Haines 3 6 0 0 7 Rice 2 6 5

Hunt 1 4 0 0 2 Gelinas 9 19 2 20

Pepin 1 3 1 2 3 M. Gagnon 1 2

Bean 1 2 1 2 3 Marcotte 2 6 4

Kempton 0 4 2 2 2

Stanley 0 0 0 0 0

LaHaye 6 11 0 0 13

Totals 22 61 18 23 67 24 61 11 22 61

UM-Farmington 29 38 67

St. Joseph’s 29 32 61

3-pt. goals: UM-Farmington (5-21) Woodcock 2-8, Haines 1-1, Sawyer 1-1, LaHaye 1-3, Bard 0-3, Kempton 0-3, Pepin 0-2; St. Joseph’s (2-19) Pelkey 2-4, Gelinas 0-5, Picard 0-5, Marcotte 0-3, M. Gagnon 0-1, T. Gagnon 0-1