ORONO – The University of Maine women’s basketball team needed to find a way to turn the flow of the game in its favor Saturday night.

Slowly, but surely, the Black Bears’ relentless defensive pressure did the trick.

Binghamton buckled under UMaine’s tenacious defense, committing six turnovers during a late 17-0 scoring surge that carried the Bears to a 63-53 America East victory at Alfond Arena.

“That (pressure) was the only thing that was going to get us back in the game,” said coach Sharon Versyp, whose Bears trailed by as many as nine points in the first half.

“Binghamton did a great job knocking down shots and the only thing for us [to do] is to really press and get ourselves going. If we make transition baskets, that’s when our defense picks up,” she said.

UMaine extended its winning streak to five games, improving to 12-8 while maintaining a share of the league lead with Hartford at 8-2.

Senior Missy Traversi celebrated the victory by scoring her 1,000th career point. She went 12-for-12 from the foul line, reaching the scoring milestone on a foul shot with 36.5 seconds left.

Traversi is the 15th UMaine women’s player to reach the 1,000 mark.

“Honestly, it’s a great accomplishment, but I’m glad it’s over with because it’s a big weight off my back and I can just move on and focus,” Traversi said. “What better place than to do it in front of the fans. It’s an awesome feeling.”

Ashley Underwood of Benton sparked the UMaine offense with 17 points on the strength of 5-for-6 shooting from 3-point range. Abby Schrader contributed 11 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Senior point guard Kim Corbitt finished with seven points, six rebounds, five assists and six steals while Traversi added three assists and three steals. Monica Peterson chipped in with six rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Rachel Laws and Laine Kurpniece paced Binghamton (6-13, 5-5 AE) with 11 points each. Jen Haubrich added 10.

UMaine, which trailed by seven points with 11:37 to play, used its trapping defense to initiate a potent transition attack that changed the complexion of the game in a span of 41/2 minutes.

Binghamton, which led 46-42 with 9:47 to play, had bogged down the Bears’ offense with stingy man-to-man defense while working the ball inside effectively at the offensive end.

UMaine’s run-and-jump press had slowly begun to take its toll. Corbitt pressured the ballcarrier up the court, before Traversi, Underwood, Barker, Peterson and Schrader helped set traps and double-teams.

Corbitt made a steal, drew a foul and converted two foul shots to get the Bears going at the 8:39 mark. Next it was Underwood who came up with a steal that led to two Schrader free throws that tied the game.

“The second half we definitely picked up the defensive intensity,” Corbitt said. “We started trapping more. We got some steals. We actually made them miss a few shots in the second half so we got the rebound and ran, which is very important for us.”

Another Corbitt steal, one of 15 by the Bears, eventually led to her 3-pointer that gave UMaine a 49-46 lead and sent the crowd into a frenzy with 6:49 left.

A Peterson steal led to two Traversi foul shots, then Underwood drained 3-pointers 42 seconds apart to give the hosts a 57-46 advantage with 4:04 left.

“I thought we played an outstanding first half but, as always, Maine’s a championship team and they really regrouped and took it at us and had a great run in the middle of the second half which we really did not respond to,” said Binghamton coach Rich Conover.

Binghamton later ran off seven straight points to cut the deficit to 59-53, but UMaine iced it from the foul line, going 24-for-28 (86 percent) in the contest. The Bears outrebounded the Bearcats 32-23 and afforded them only three 3-pointers.

Binghamton picked apart the UMaine defense in the first half, going 13-for-19 (68 percent) from the floor in the first half while scoring 22 points in the paint.

BLACK BEARS 63, BEARCATS 53

Binghamton (6-13) Maine (12-8)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Haubrich 3 7 4 6 10 Barker 3 9 7

Sario 2 6 2 2 6 Peterson 0 3

Deemand 0 4 0 0 0 Schrader 3 11

Lindgren 2 2 0 0 6 Traversi 2 10 12 12 16

Laws 4 7 3 4 11 Corbitt 2 11 2 7

Jahilo 1 2 0 0 2 Underwood 6 17

Blues 3 3 0 0 7 Hugstad-Va 0 2

Lobach 0 1 0 0 0 Whittier 0 0

Kurpniece 4 5 3 3 11

Totals 19 37 12 15 53 Totals 16 48 24 28 63

Binghamton 31 53

Maine 24 63

3-pt. goals – Binghamton (3-7): Deemand 0-2, Lindgren 2-2, Blues 1-1, Lobach 0-1, Kurpniece 0-1; Maine (7-16): Barker 1-3, Traversi 0-5, Corbitt 1-2, Underwood 5-6

Attendance: 2,493