BURLINGTON, Vt. – Sophomore forward Alexis Castro scored a career-high 34 points after hitting 12 of 18 field goals to lead the University of Vermont women’s basketball team past Maine 73-60 on Sunday afternoon at Patrick Gymnasium.

This marks the first time the Catamounts, 6-8 overall and 2-1 in America East conference play, have posted back-to-back wins this season.

Ashley Underwood of Benton led the Black Bears (5-9 and 1-2) with 22 points and Bar Harbor’s Bracey Barker had a game-high 12 rebounds. Abby Schrader notched her fourth double-double of the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds, but Maine was still outrebounded 38-37.

Castro’s three-point play with 14:22 left in the game gave Vermont the lead (45-44) and ignited a 14-0 run in which the Catamounts were able to hold Maine without a field goal for nearly nine minutes.

“I think we’ve turned a corner on defense and we are creating more on offense, which in turn has allowed us to play loose and the more loose we play, the better we are,” said Vermont coach Sharon Dawley.

The Catamounts blocked a season-high five shots in the game and hassled Maine into committing 21 turnovers while making just 13 themselves.

Maine would cut its deficit to five points twice in the final six minutes, but that’s as close as the Black Bears could get as Vermont scored 14 of the game’s last 20 points.

Chrissy Battram had 11 points and seven rebounds for the Catamounts, while Brittney Cross dished out seven assists and mad four steals – both game-highs – to go with seven rebounds.

CATAMOUNTS 73, BLACK BEARS 60

Maine women (5-9) Vermont (6-8)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Younan 0 1 0 1 0 Cross 1 8 3

Undrwood 7 15 6 8 22 Battram 4 10 11

Hgstd-Vaa 1 1 0 0 2 Rosnkrntz 0 1

Whittier 3 4 3 6 9 Fenton 0 3 0

Barker 2 10 3 4 7 Castro 12 18 13 34

Elderton 0 2 2 2 2 Madey 0 0 0

Bryant 0 1 0 0 0 Cuncic 3 7 7

Bowen 0 0 2 2 2 Brown 1 1 2

Kilmurray 0 1 0 0 0 Rdnmchr 1 3 2

Schrader 6 12 4 6 16 Janousek 1 2

Cihal 3 4 3 9

Poles 1 1 0 2

Totals 19 47 20 29 60 27 63 14 23 73

Maine 34 60

Vermont 38 73

3-pt. goals – Maine (2-11): Underwood 2-6, Kilmurray 0-1, Elderton 0-1, Barker (0-3); Vermont (5-17): Battram 3-6, Castro 2-4, Fenton 0-1, Janousek 0-1, Cuncic 0-2, Cross 0-3

Attendance: 1,001