WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Nearly a year has passed since the University of Maine women’s basketball team played for the America East championship – and lost.

Thursday night, the Black Bears took a strong first step toward having another chance at winning their first title since 1998.

Top-seeded UMaine used its balance and depth while pulling away for a comfortable 66-40 quarterfinal victory over No. 8 New Hampshire at Chase Family Arena on the campus of the University of Hartford.

Coach Sharon Versyp’s 23-6 Bears earned a spot in today’s 6 p.m. semifinal against the winner of Thursday’s late game between No. 4 Albany and fifth-seeded Hartford.

“It’s super exciting,” said senior guard Melissa Heon, who paced the Bears with 13 points, handed out five assists and made two steals. “This is our last hurrah, so there’s nothing to be left on the bench or the locker room. We’ve just got to give it our all.”

The Bears, who beat the Wildcats (11-18) twice during the regular season, started a bit slowly while spotting them an 8-0 lead and missing their first seven shots.

UMaine clamped down with its cohesive man-to-man defense, took advantage of foul trouble to UNH center Maren Matthias (13 points), and outscored the Wildcats 28-8 to take a 28-18 halftime lead.

“We would have liked to come out a little stronger,” said junior point guard Kim Corbitt, who posted 12 points, nine in the second half, while spearheading the defense.

“We got behind early,” she said. “We played tougher defense later in the game but we’d like to start out strong with good defense and carry that throughout.”

Heon finally broke the scoring ice at the 15:46 mark. That seemed to loosen up the Bears, who went on to hold UNH without a field goal for more than 91/2 minutes.

In the meantime, UMaine pounded the ball inside to two-time AE Player of the Year Heather Ernest (13 points, seven rebounds). The senior forward from Temple tallied nine straight points on two foul shots, a three-point play, a baseline move and a low-post bucket as the Bears took a 20-14 lead.

“Once we started knocking down shots, life got a little bit easier and also we needed to pick it up on defense,” Ernest said. “Our defense runs our offense and the better we played on defense, the better we did on offense.”

Freshman Ashley Underwood of Benton (eight points) helped make sure the Bears maintained the momentum, sandwiching 3-pointers around a hoop by UNH’s Salee-Marie Johnson during a 9-2 spurt that gave UMaine a 10-point lead.

The Bears padded their advantage early in the second half, during which they shot 62 percent. Heon’s 3-pointer kicked off a 13-2 scoring run after intermission that pushed the lead to 41-20 with 13:54 remaining.

“I think one thing that we have done this year compared to last year is to become that complete team that if somebody wants to shut down two players, that we still have some players that are stepping up,” Versyp said of her team’s balance.

With the game well in hand, Versyp was able to substitute more freely and limit the minutes of her upperclassmen. The Bears stymied UNH with a 1-2-2 matchup zone and the Wildcats responded with 2-for-19 shooting from 3-point range en route to a 3-for-29 effort (10.3 percent) for the game.

“I think we had really good looks at the basket and we couldn’t knock them down. That’s really the story,” said UNH coach Sue Johnson.

Senior Julie Veilleux provided five assists and two steals for UMaine, which committed a season-low eight turnovers.

Ernest logged a team-high 28 minutes for UMaine, which had eight people go at least 14 minutes. Underwood’s 19 minutes and 14 from Abby Schrader were helpful in keeping the Bears rested.

“It’s great that I was able to put in a shift or four [players] here and there,” Versyp said. “We kind of got a good rhythm with that and experience for the young kids.”

BLACK BEARS 66, WILDCATS 40

New Hampshire (11-18) Maine (23-6)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Hardy 2 6 0 0 6 Heon 5 11 13

Williams 3 5 0 0 6 Ernest 5 9 13

Woods 1 6 0 0 3 Corbitt 4 5 12

Poulin 0 4 0 0 0 Veilleux 2 4

Matthias 5 6 3 8 13 Schrader 2 4

Edwards 1 7 0 0 2 Traversi 3 6

Johnson 2 8 1 2 5 Underwood 3 8

Rappoport 0 1 1 2 1 Hugstad-Va 2 4

Dillon 0 2 0 0 0 Jay 0 0 0

Clark 0 5 4 4 4 Whittier 0 0

Connolly 0 1 0 0 0 Gay 0 0 0

Barker 0 0 0 0

Quacknbsh 1 1 2

Peterson 0 3 0

Totals 14 51 9 16 40 27 57 66

New Hampshire 18 40

Maine 28 66

3-pt. goals ? New Hampshire (3-29): Hardy 2-6, Woods 1-6, Poulin 0-3, Edwards 0-4, Johnson 0-3, Clark 0-4, Connolly 0-1, Dillon 0-1, Rappoport 0-1; Maine (4-13): Underwood 2-4, Heon 1-4, Corbitt 1-1, Veilleux 0-1