Bears eye first Dead River title since ’95

ORONO – The tropical memories of Hawaii are still fresh in the minds of players on the University of Maine women’s basketball team. But the Black Bears hope to turn up the heat at Alfond Arena this weekend during the 11th Dead River Co. Classic.

UMaine is determined to end a pattern of runner-up finishes in the event, which begins today at 1 p.m. with a game between Marquette and Oakland (Mich.).

Coach Sharon Versyp’s 1-1 Bears take the floor for a 3 p.m. contest against Ivy League representative Columbia hoping to win their own tournament for only the second time since its inception and the first time in eight seasons.

UMaine appears to have history on its side, since the only time it won the Dead River was in 1995, after a first-round victory over Columbia.

“We’ve never won this tournament before. That is our goal, to come out here and be very successful,” said senior captain Heather Ernest of Temple.

The Bears have spent the week trying to reset their body clocks after the 10,300-mile round trip to Honolulu. The team returned Monday afternoon, took Tuesday off, then returned to practice Wednesday.

“It’s been interesting,” Ernest said. “We’re just really excited to be back here in our home town and playing in the Alfond. The first couple of days we were pretty tired.”

Senior Julie Veilleux of Augusta said it is helpful the tournament was moved to Saturday-Sunday rather than the traditional Friday-Saturday format. That also enabled some of the players to have Thanksgiving dinner at home, some of them with teammates.

All four teams ate together Friday night during the Dead River banquet.

The emphasis in preparing for Columbia has been renewed intensity on defense and determination in rebounding. The Bears have been out-rebounded in both of their games this season.

“It’s a very big red flag that coach has seen and she doesn’t like it at all,” Ernest said. “We’ve been leading the last couple of years in rebounding.”

Veilleux said UMaine played pretty good defense in Hawaii, but some of it was erased by lackluster rebounding.

“It made our defense seem like it’s not so great – it was good – but then they’d shoot, get a rebound and shoot again,” Veilleux said. “That’s where we were lacking over there.”