VESTAL, N.Y. – The University of Maine women got back to playing good defense and had five players score in double figures in a 73-56 basketball victory over Binghamton University in an America East conference-opener for both teams Wednesday night at the Events Center.

Sophomore guard Ashley Underwood led the 5-6 Black Bears in scoring with 17 points and senior Abby Schrader came off the bench to score 16.

“Abby scored 16 and had some boards, but she also did the things I wanted her to do and filled a gap for us offensively. I was really happy with the way she played,” said Maine coach Sharon Versyp.

Schrader scored nine points during an 11-2 Maine run that closed the first half and gave Maine a 32-22 halftime lead.

Senior Monica Peterson had a double-double with 13 points and 13 boards, but also played stellar defense on Binghamton guard Rachel Laws, the leading rebounder in the conference coming in.

“Mon did an incredible job. We just did a superb job on Laws with her having eight points and just three rebounds,” Versyp said. “Our goal was to contain Laws and Jen Haubrich [10 points] and not allow their shooters to make more than six 3’s.”

The Bearcats canned only two 3-pointers in the game as Maine’s defense was better than solid.

“We wanted to hold them to 55 points and they got 56,” Versyp added. “That’s the biggest thing for me is the way we played defense, holding them to 38 percent shooting.”

The Bears also did a better job of utilizing their inside scoring by getting the ball into the paint more efficiently.

Kim Corbitt scored 12 points and fellow senior guard Missy Traversi tallied 10 for Maine.

Maine held a 47-35 lead midway through the second half and expanded it to 21 points (58-37) before the 1-8 Bearcats chipped it down to 15 (61-46), but an 8-0 Maine run with about four minutes left kept the Bears comfortably ahead for the rest of the game.

Laine Kurpniece paced the Bearcats with 12 points and nine rebounds.

BLACK BEARS 73, BEARCATS 56

Maine (5-6) Binghamton (1-8)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Barker 2 5 1 4 5 Haubrich 4 10 2 3 10

Peterson 6 12 1 2 13 Laws 3 9 8

Traversi 4 11 0 3 10 Sario 1 4 2

Underwood 6 8 3 3 17 Deemand 3 6 6

Corbitt 6 7 0 0 12 Lindgren 3 6

Hugstad-Vaa 0 0 0 0 0 Jahilo 0 3 0

Jay 0 0 0 0 0 Blues 1 1 0 3

Whittier 0 1 0 0 0 Lobach 2 3 5

Elderton 0 1 0 0 0 Kurpniece 4 12

Schrader 7 9 2 2 16 Hibler 1 7 4

Bartula 0 1 0 0

Totals 31 54 7 14 73 22 57 10 20 56

Maine 32 73

Binghamton 22 56

3-pt. goals – Maine (4-10): Underwood 2-3, Traversi 2-7; Binghamton (2-11): Kurpniece 1-1, Blues 1-1, Sario 0-1, Jahilo 0-1, Lobach 0-1, Deemand 0-3, Lindgren 0-3

Attendance: 1,587

Football

Teevens returns to Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – Buddy Teevens is returning to coach Dartmouth, five weeks after being fired as Stanford’s football coach.

Teevens previously coached Dartmouth from 1987-91, leading the Big Green to a 26-22-2 record and two Ivy League championships. He replaces John Lyons, who was fired a day after Stanford dismissed Teevens.

Teevens started his career as a head coach at the University of Maine in 1985 and ’86. His Black Bears posted a two-year record of 13-9.

At Stanford, Teevens finished with a 10-23 record in three seasons after taking over the program when Tyrone Willingham bolted for Notre Dame following the 2001 season. Teevens spent the three previous seasons on Steve Spurrier’s staff at Florida.

A Dartmouth graduate, Teevens was the Ivy League player of the year as a quarterback in 1978.