Fast-break attack, scoring depth fuel Maine success

The University of Maine women’s basketball team appears to be rounding into shape as it moves out of non-conference play into its America East schedule.

Coming off Saturday’s convincing win over Yale at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, coach Sharon Versyp’s Black Bears are 8-4 and boast four straight victories.

UMaine’s best weapon of late has been its fast-break attack, which prevents opponents from settling into a defensive set to contend with the Bears’ ever-improving offensive balance.

“I think they’re a really well-balanced team,” said Yale coach Amy Backus. “They’re a difficult team to defend in that respect because they have such a solid inside game with Heather Ernest. And I thought Nicole Jay did an outstanding job [Saturday] as well.”

It’s no secret UMaine wants to force the tempo, especially with the success it has had running in its last two games. Doing so requires opponents to miss a few shots and the Bears then must rebound, push the ball up the court and finish at the other end.

“I think Maine does a great job of getting their outlets out far and wide,” Backus said. “You’ve got to try to find the ball and slow it down. And their big kids can run a little bit quicker than we thought they could.”

Yale actually stymied the UMaine offense in the early going Saturday, implementing a matchup zone alignment that was successful in collapsing on Ernest underneath.

That led to a handful of early turnovers and allowed the Bulldogs to maintain a half-court style game that cramps the Bears’ style.

But once UMaine was able to run the floor, taking advantage of its quickness and passing skills, it looked like a completely different team.

“It’s key for us to play tough defense and box out so we can get a nice outlet and get it down the floor,” said UMaine junior Julie Veilleux, who admitted the Bears can sense when they’re getting on a roll.

“You can see the body language of the other team, also, and it feels so great,” she said.

The Bears play host to Northeastern Wednesday in a 7:30 p.m. game at Alfond Arena.

Ernest, a junior forward from Temple, has emerged as the leading scorer in America East with 21.4 points per game. She also is tied for the rebounding lead at 9.7 per contest.

Ernest ranks second in field-goal percentage (.578) and fifth in free-throw percentage (.826).

Another UMaine statistical leader is junior guard Melissa Heon, who is first in the league in steals (2.5) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.84), sixth in free-throw percentage (.826) and 11th in scoring (10.7).

UMaine hockey tops in both polls

The UMaine men’s hockey team, which swept last weekend’s Hockey East series against Northeastern at Alfond Arena in Orono, has regained the No. 1 spot in both national polls.

Coach Tim Whitehead’s 18-2-2 Black Bears, who were third in the polls last week, have jumped to No. 1 in the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine and the U.S. College Hockey Online polls.

UMaine finished one point ahead of Colorado College in the USA Today sampling and outdistanced the Tigers by 37 points in the USCHO.com poll.

The Bears play Friday and Saturday at Merrimack (Mass.).

UM track strong at Dartmouth

The UMaine men’s track team finished fourth among 28 teams last weekend during the 34th Dartmouth Relays at Hanover, N.H.

The Black Bear women wound up ninth out of 29 squads.

Ken Bettis of Brunswick led the men with a victory in the 800 meters with a time of 1 minute, 55.60 seconds. Eric Olafsen of Portland finished second in the 5000 (15:50.38) and the Bears’ distance medley team also came in second.

UMaine’s other point-scorers included Nathan Holmes of Waterboro (4th, 55m hurdles), Adam Goode of Bangor (5th, 5000m) and the 4×800 relay squad (5th).

Among the women, the distance relay team took second place, while Stephanie McCusker of Lisbon (5th, long jump; 6th, triple jump), Palmyra’s Katie Page (6th, shot put), Katie Souviney of Vassalboro (6th, 55m hurdles) and Suzanne Hussey of Alfred (5th, 3000m) also scored points.