HARTFORD, Conn. – It was an off night for the University of Maine’s Melissa Heon, considering her 1-for-12 effort from the floor during Thursday evening’s America East quarterfinal between the No. 1 Black Bears and No. 8 Hartford.

But the junior guard maintained her composure, and still finished the game with six assists, four rebounds and four steals. It wasn’t only Heon.

It was the team’s ability to remain poised after a rough first half was a big key to a 71-51 victory over the Hawks.

“It was a team-wide thing,” said junior guard Heon, who was averaging 11.5 points per game before Thursday’s contest. “Everyone was hitting things, picking up for me. If I can’t shoot, I’ll find ways to contribute.”

Maine is hoping that carries over to Friday’s semifinal. The Black Bears will face the winner of Thursday night’s quarterfinal between No. 5 Stony Brook and No. 4 New Hampshire in a 6:05 p.m. game.

The Bears stayed calm in the second half, and it showed.

After allowing four 3-pointers in the first half, including a long-range Bridget Murray basket that tied the game at 26 just 16 seconds before halftime, Maine allowed only one 3-pointer in the second half and held Hartford to 1-for-6 shooting.

The Hawks were 6-for-8 from the free-throw line in the first half, while the Bears didn’t get to the line at all. Maine buckled down in the second half, didn’t let Hartford get into the bonus until late in the game, and went 12-for-15 from the stripe in the second half.

“It was the little things,” Maine forward Heather Ernest said. “Rebounding, boxing out, not fouling, which was what we did in the first half. We were fouling their shooters and that’s how they stayed in it.”

After the Hawks scored five unanswered points with three minutes left, Maine’s Missy Traversi, who didn’t take a shot in the first half, nailed a 3-pointer with 2:53 remaining to give the Black Bears a 62-46 lead.

Sophomore Monica Peterson had one basket in the first half but finished with 14 points. She didn’t miss at the free-throw line, going 4-for-4, and had five of her seven rebounds in the second half.

And Maine had no turnovers in the second half after 11 in the first.

“In the first half we would throw the ball away with an eight-point lead. Coach [Sharon Versyp] talked about it at halftime. Why do that? Just stay poised and don’t force things that aren’t there,” Ernest said. “And that’s what we did in the second half. We had a run, kind of calmed down, did things that we knew would be successful.”

For the Bears, that meant getting the ball to the 6-foot-1 Ernest, who happens to be the reigning conference Player of the Year. She too came alive in the second half, with 14 of her game-high 20 points, 10 of her game-best 15 rebounds, and 6-for-8 free-throw shooting.

It comes down to experience, Heon said. Even though there are just two seniors on this year’s squad, junior starters Heon, Ernest and Julie Veilleux (14 points, seven rebounds) have all seen significant minutes since their freshman seasons.

“In a way I think we’re half seniors and half juniors,” Heon said. “That gives us a sense of poise just in itself. People look to us and hopefully we do our job and calm people down.”

That was evident in the locker room, Ernest related, as the Bears were facing a second half against a Hartford team that had bounced them from the tournament two years in a row.

“There were definitely no negative thoughts [at halftime],” she said. “It wasn’t, ‘Oh no, here we go again.’ It was, ‘We’re OK.’ We didn’t perform well in the first half. We needed to do what we do best, and that’s playing our style of basketball. We picked up the defensive intensity in the second half … We just rolled from there.”