ORONO – The Dead River Company Classic has always meant tough competition and, usually, a measure of frustration for the University of Maine women’s basketball team.

Saturday night, the Black Bears broke with tournament tradition.

UMaine survived St. Joseph’s slowdown tactic, scoring 14 unanswered second half points on its way to a 54-36 victory in front of 2,057 fans at Alfond Arena.

Coach Sharon Versyp’s Bears improved to 2-3 while claiming the Dead River title for the first time since 1995 and for only the second time in the event’s 12-year history.

“We won the Dead River,” beamed UMaine senior guard Missy Traversi, who was named the tournament Most Valuable Player after a 16-point performance on Saturday.

“We’ve been waiting for this win for a long time and we played a great team today,” she said. “We played well as a team, collectively.”

Joining Traversi on the All-Tournament team were teammate Kim Corbitt, Erica Pollock and Maura McBryan of St. Joseph’s, Tan White of Mississippi State and Loyola’s Meskhenet Lands.

In Saturday’s consolation game, Mississippi State blew out Loyola of Chicago 80-43.

Traversi and Corbitt served as UMaine’s offensive catalysts in the title game. Both spearheaded the defense and initiated the offense, with Corbitt’s dribble penetration and timely passing giving the team a big lift in the second half.

Corbitt handed out seven assists and grabbed five rebounds for UMaine, which committed only six turnovers, including none in the second half.

Sophomore Bracey Barker of Bar Harbor provided 11 points and seven rebounds and Monica Peterson added six points and seven rebounds.

“I’m just excited for the whole group, because they deserved this,” Versyp said. “They’ve been working extremely hard and it’s been many years since we won this, so it’s great.”

Pollock led the Hawks (2-4) from Philadelphia with 16 points and eight rebounds, while Christine Roth hit five 3-pointers for 15 points.

UMaine struggled to establish offensive continuity against St. Joseph’s extended

2-3 zone. Instead, the Bears turned the tide with their own outstanding defense.

With Maine clinging to a 31-28 lead seven minutes into the second half, Corbitt raced ahead for a layup off a Barker steal and feed for a five-point edge. Versyp chose that moment to switch from man-to-man defense into a 1-2-2 zone.

“They were killing us inside and we had five fouls at the 14-, 15-minute mark so the zone really benefited us,” said Versyp, who waited to make the move when the lead got to five.

St. Joseph’s, which had been exploiting UMaine’s post defense, suddenly went cold. The Hawks went without a field goal for 10 minutes, 18 seconds.

“I think it helped them in the fact that we didn’t make shots even before they went zone, so then we started jacking up 3’s … and we were one-and-done,” said St. Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin.

In the meantime, the hosts built an insurmountable lead. Barker scored from the baseline off a penetrate-and-dish by Corbitt, then hit a free throw to complete a three-point play.

Ashley Underwood of Benton followed with a 3-pointer to give UMaine a 41-28 lead with 7:12 left. Traversi hit a 12-footer and Peterson scored off a lob from Corbitt to complete the surge.

By the time Roth nailed a 3-pointer at the 5:03 mark to end the Hawks’ field-goal drought, the Bears had extended their advantage to 17 points.

“The second half, we just did a better job trying to attack the basket, just trying to get lay-

ups,” Corbitt said. “That was our focus, to try to pack it to the foul line and try to get as many easy shots as possible.”

As they had done Friday against Mississippi State, the Hawks kept the pace of the game at a crawl by dribbling the ball in the backcourt for 10 seconds before initiating their offense on each possession.

The ploy kept the clock running and the point totals down, but St. Joseph’s simply couldn’t make it work.

“We’re finding that we’re better equipped to do it that way as opposed to run up and down,” Griffin said.

St. Joseph’s had scored the last six points of the first half to creep within 22-21 at intermission.

In Saturday’s first game, the Lady Bulldogs (2-2) bounced back after an abysmal effort in Friday’s first round.

Mississippi State shot 43 percent while scoring 36 first-half points, nearly its total in the 41-38 loss to St. Joseph’s. The Bulldogs pulled out to an early lead and never looked back, dominating the rebounding and playing strong man-to-man defense.

Loyola (1-3) struggled offensively, shooting 32 percent for the contest, including 3-for-23 from the 3-point arc. The Ramblers committed 21 turnovers.

MSU connected on 10 of 26 from beyond the 3-point line and emerged with a 50-34 rebounding advantage.

White paced the Bulldogs with 13 points, four assists, three steals and two blocked shots. Rebecca Kates and Tiania Burns added 11 points each.

Lands led Loyola with nine points and five assists.

Mississippi State (2-2) 80

Warren 3-0-8, Burns 5-0-11, McKinney 3-2-8, White 6-0-13, Kates 4-0-11, Chekwa 3-1-7, Ferguson 3-0-8, Reeder 1-0-3, Willoughby, Johnson 1-0-2, Hilliard 1-0-2, Henderson 2-3-7, Hagler

Loyola (1-3) 43

Lands 4-1-9, Hanser 2-0-4, Mennella, Lonie 3-1-7, Real 3-1-7, Garcia, Harris 1-0-3, Abdul-Qadir 1-0-3, Nabolotny 0-1-1, Henderson 2-0-5, Massey, Ponder 2-0-4

3-pt. goals: Warren 2, Burns, White, Kates 3, Ferguson 2, Reeder; Abdul-Qadir, Harris, Henderson

Halftime: Mississippi State 36-17

BLACK BEARS 54, HAWKS 36

Saint Joseph’s (2-4) Maine (2-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Springman 1 5 0 0 2 Traversi 7 16 0 0 16

McBryan 0 4 2 2 2 Corbitt 4 7 12

Schutte 0 2 1 2 1 Barker 4 11 11

Roth 5 12 0 0 15 Peterson 3 7 6

Pollock 8 14 0 0 16 Schrader 1 2

French 0 4 0 0 0 Underwood 1 7

Gomez 0 4 0 0 0 Elderton 0 0

Totals 14 45 3 4 36 Totals 20 52 10 11 54

Saint Joseph’s 21 36

Maine 22 54

3-pt. goals – Saint Joseph’s (5-16): Springman 0-1, Roth 5-12, French 0-1, Gomez 0-2; Maine (4-17): Traversi 2-7, Corbitt 1-1, Barker 0-5, Underwood 1-4

Attendance: 2,057