UMaine suffers 2nd straight loss Strong 2nd half sparks St. Joe’s

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PHILADELPHIA – The Saint Joseph’s women’s basketball team used a 21-3 run midway in the second half and shot nearly 60 percent from the field after halftime to pull away to a 69-49 victory over Maine on Sunday afternoon at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse.

Ayahna Cornish paced the Hawks with 17 points and eight rebounds as Saint Joseph’s improved to 5-4.

Katie Whittier led the Black Bears, who fell to 5-3 after their second straight loss, with 10 points and eight rebounds.

Maine struggled to score early, although the Bears held the Hawks to just a 20-18 halftime lead.

Maine’s Amanda Tewksbury (six points) made a layup to tie the game 2 minutes, 33 seconds into the second half, but a Cornish layup 1:14 later put Saint Joseph’s up for good.

Two Tewksbury free throws kept it 28-26 later in the half, but a Jen Oyler 3-pointer sparked the Hawks’ run. The Black Bears didn’t score again until Sandra Vaitkute (career-high eight points) made a free throw with 9:30 left, but Saint Joseph’s already had a 41-27 lead.

The Hawks had an 8-0 lead with 12:54 left in the first half when the Bears got their first points off a Whittier layup. Saint Joseph’s went up 13-2, but Maine climbed back into the game thanks to a 12-3 run in the final six minutes of the period.

Lindsey Hugstad-Vaa, who started in place of injured forward Bracey Barker of Bar Harbor, and point guard Abby Greene were limited to 15 and 14 minutes, respectively, due to foul trouble.

Jenna Loschiavo of Saint Joseph’s scored 15 points and Oyler added 12. The Hawks shot 59.3 percent in the second half after hitting 19.2 percent in the first. Maine shot just 32.7 percent overall.

The Hawks had a 40-29 rebounding edge.

HAWKS 69, BLACK BEARS 49

Maine (5-3) Saint Joseph’s (5-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Whittier 4 13 2 2 10 Pollock 1 3 3

Hgstd-Vaa 2 7 0 0 4 Pvlvskaya 0 1

Undrwood 1 8 2 2 4 Ffrench 0 6 6

Greene 1 2 0 0 3 Cornish 6 15 17

Tewksbury 1 4 4 4 6 Gomez 2 4 7

Younan 2 3 1 5 5 Oyler 4 7 12

Baker 0 0 0 0 0 Wold 0 1 0

Boser 1 5 2 2 4 McDade 0 1 2

Colon 0 0 0 0 0 Ford 3 4 6

Bowen 1 1 0 2 2 Lschiavo 5 11 1 1 15

Kilmurray 1 2 0 0 3 Gillespie 0 0

Vaitkute 2 3 4 6 8 Hutchinsn 0 0

Bratishko 0 1 0 0 0 Logue 0 0 0

Totals 16 49 15 23 49 Totals 21 53 18 22 69

Maine 18 49

Saint Joseph’s 20 69

3-pt. goals – Maine (2-3): Kilmurray 1-1, Greene 1-1, Underwood 0-1; Saint Joseph’s (9-22): Oyler 4-7, Loshiano 4-9, Gomez 1-2, Ffrench 0-1, Cornish 0-2, Wold 0-1

Attendance: 576