Bears look to end AE tourney skid vs. Hawks

ORONO – Each of the last two seasons, the University of Maine’s basketball season has ended emotionally at the hands of the Hartford Hawks.

The Black Bears look to end that trend tonight when they meet the Hawks in the quarterfinals of the America East women’s tournament. Game time is 6:05 p.m. at Hartford’s Chase Family Arena.

Tonight’s game will not be televised, but can be heard on WZON radio (AM 620) in Bangor. Bangor’s WCKD-TV will broadcast Friday’s semifinals and Saturday’s title game.

The UMaine women claimed the league regular-season championship and the No. 1 tourney seed by virtue of a 23-4 record and its current 19-game winning streak.

“It’s an incredible feeling to go into the tournament on top. We haven’t done that in a long time,” said junior guard Melissa Heon.

The success also earned the Bears another first-round meeting against host Hartford, the defending America East champion, which has been a tough matchup for UMaine this season and in recent years. The Bears don’t need to spend much time talking about the implications of the game.

“We’re very anxious to play Hartford again, because we’ve got some payback there and some hard feelings from the past two years, so we have to take care of business,” Heon said.

Hartford (7-20) made a couple of good runs at UMaine this season, dropping a 74-64 overtime decision in Orono before losing 68-63 in West Hartford 12 days ago.

Coach Jennifer Rizzotti’s Hawks present some matchup problems for the Bears because of their quick, guard-oriented lineup.

“They’re great one-on-one,” Versyp said. “We’ve got to put 35 minutes of great defense together, no matter what.”

And no matter how emotional and intense UMaine players might be for the game, they know they can’t be consumed by the revenge factor.

Hartford plays with great energy, and will be doing so in front of an enthusiastic, partisan crowd on its home court. The Bears need to concentrate on playing hard and well.

“It will be a good game, I guarantee it,” said UMaine’s Heather Ernest, the America East Player of the Year. “This team [Hartford] doesn’t go away. They will definitely stick around and cause problems. We just need to do our thing, play our game.”

There are two major differences between this year’s UMaine squad and the previous two postseason entries. The Bears have a great deal more experience and depth, the lack of which severely hampered their effectiveness in their last two league tournament games.

“We need to have eight kids play a lot of minutes against Hartford,” Versyp said. “In the first game, you’ve just got to lay it all on the line.”

Versyp is convinced playing Hartford again in the quarterfinals could be a blessing in disguise. While the matchup pitting the Nos. 1 and 8 teams is often considered an easy win for the top seed, the Bears know that isn’t the case this time.

“At least we have motivation and some issues,” Versyp said. “Statistically, we’re better than they are, but we’ve got to step out on the floor and play.”

If UMaine beats Hartford, it would advance to Friday’s 6:05 p.m. semifinal against the winner of tonight’s New Hampshire-Stony Brook contest.

“We’ve just got to worry about ourselves,” Versyp said. “With Hartford, we know what we need to do and we just have to do it and we have to be mentally tough and mentally focused to get the job done.”