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BURLINGTON, Vt. – As the final 26.1 seconds ran off the clock Wednesday night at Patrick Gym, all the possibilities swirled through Kim Corbitt’s mind.
“First, I was, like, well, do I shoot a ‘3,’ because she’s not guarding me? Then I was, like, well, just don’t get blocked,” said Corbitt, who thought, “Well, if I go right, she’s going to think I’ll go right, so maybe I should go left. I had a lot of time to think.”
When the time came to attack, the Black Bears’ sophomore point guard made the right choice. Corbitt dribbled in toward the foul line, cut to her left with a slick behind-the-back dribble, then up-faked 6-footer Morgan Hall and hit an 8-foot fallaway jumper with 2.6 seconds left to lift UMaine to a thrilling 54-52 America East women’s basketball victory over Vermont in front of 1,743 fans.
Was that the play UMaine was looking for?
“Yeah, isn’t that scary?” laughed Corbitt, who scored 12 points and dished out six assists.
UMaine extended its incredible winning streak to 18 games while improving to 22-4, including 15-0 in league play. Vermont (19-7, 11-4 AE) failed to get off a shot before time expired.
“Kim knew that she just had to wind the clock down, hopefully get a good opportunity,” said UMaine coach Sharon Versyp. “She had to knock it down.”
Heather Ernest led UMaine with 16 points, 13 of which came in the first half, and 12 rebounds. Melissa Heon tossed in 12 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and played great defense on Hall.
Monica Peterson contributed eight points and six rebounds for UMaine, which shot 35 percent from the floor and went 9-for-14 from the foul line.
Hall paced Vermont with 14 points, eight of which came from the foul line, and 12 rebounds. Dawn Cressman provided 10 points and 13 rebounds, and Aaron Yantzi added 10 points.
As expected, defense carried the day. The Catamounts shot only 31 percent (17-for-55), but outrebounded the Bears 42-38. Vermont opened each half by going 1-for-16 from the floor, but still put together enough runs to keep it close.
UVM trailed 50-43 with 3:27 remaining, but made a final charge. Hall hit two free throws, then later made a driving layup. That set the stage for Cressman’s game-tying 3-pointer with 44.6 seconds left.
Versyp called timeout to settle the Bears, who worked the ball to Heon for a drive to the hoop. She was fouled and made both shots with 33 seconds to play.
“I’m proud of us, the fact that we sustained every run that they put together,” Ernest said.
Hall countered for the Cats with another driving shot with 26.1 seconds left, then Vermont sat back and let UMaine take the last shot.
“We didn’t want to get beat inside and we didn’t want to scramble where we knew we would give up an uncontested shot,” said Vermont coach Keith Cieplicki. “I thought it was a tough shot; it was a contested shot. I think that’s all we could hope for.”
UMaine had pulled out to an 18-5 lead by effectively isolating its post players and holding the Catamounts to 1-for-16 shooting for nearly 12 minutes. Vermont eventually got its transition game rolling and was within 27-24 at halftime.
The hosts took Ernest out of the equation in the second half with sagging man-to-man defense. That forced UMaine to try a different strategy.
“We went away from Heather,” Versyp said. “They were triple-teaming her, so we more or less had her coming away from the basket.”
Corbitt and Heon’s dribble drives, some in transition, resulted in 16 of the Bears’ 25 second-half points.
“We finally did some really good things in the second half to create better shooting opportunities for us,” Versyp said.
Vermont trailed by as many as nine points in the second half, but used a couple of runs to keep it close.
BLACK BEARS 54, CATAMOUNTS 52
Maine (22-4) Vermont (19-7)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Heon 4 10 3 3 12 Larocque 2 4 5
Ernest 6 9 3 7 16 Cressman 4 10
Jay 1 1 0 0 2 Yantzi 4 12 2 10
Hickman 0 0 0 0 0 Boardman 2 7
Veilleux 1 5 0 0 2 Hall 3 14 14
Traversi 0 5 0 0 0 Sabourin 0 0
Corbitt 4 14 3 4 12 Spinka 1 5 4
Geraghty 0 4 0 0 0 McNamara 1 2
Peterson 4 7 0 0 8
Schrader 1 5 0 0 2
Totals 21 60 9 14 54 17 55 15 19 52
Maine 27 54
Vermont 24 52
3-pt. goals ? Maine (3-11): Ernest 1-1, Heon 1-2, Corbitt 1-2, Veilleux 0-1, Traversi 0-2, Geraghty 0-3; Vermont (3-12): Cressman 2-2, Larocque 1-2, Spinka 0-1, McNamara 0-2, Boardman 0-2, Hall 0-3
Attendance: 1,743
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