The members of the University of Maine women’s basketball team are headed home for the holidays after taking final exams this week.

Coach Ann McInerney is hoping a few days of rest and relaxation with family and friends might help the players get refreshed at they prepare for their last nonconference games of the season next week.

The Black Bears (5-3), coming off Sunday’s 63-34 loss at Boston College, have dropped three in a row as they prepare to face host the University of Virginia Thursday in the Cavalier Classic at Charlottesville, Va.

Despite a respectable defensive effort against BC, a perennial power in the Atlantic Coast Conference and nationally, UMaine has been unable to score consistently.

The 34 points mustered Sunday by the Bears were the fewest scored by a UMaine team in almost 14 years.

Part of that dismal output had to do with Boston College, which ranks seventh in the country by allowing only 50.9 points per game while holding opponents to 33 percent floor shooting.

However, the Bears clearly have not found anyone to jumpstart the offense with senior Bracey Barker of Bar Harbor sidelined with a fractured bone in her right wrist.

“We need to work on some individual skills in getting the ball and demanding the ball and playing with an attitude … not backing down but stepping up and making shots,” McInerney said.

In Barker’s absence, the scoring pressure has fallen on the shoulders of seniors Katie Whittier of New Gloucester and Ashley Underwood of Benton. Both have been key contributors, but have done so as role players more so than take-charge, go-to scorers.

The Bears don’t have much proven offensive talent beyond them as senior Lindsey Hugstad-Vaa is more of a defensive player and rebounder while freshmen Amanda Tewksbury, Abby Greene, and Tiffany Colon are still trying to learn their roles and make the jump to Division I basketball.

UMaine needs the lefthanded-shooting Tewksbury to assume a more active and prominent role in the offense while Greene and Colon also have to make themselves threats to help keep pressure off Whittier and Underwood.

With Barker expected to be out at least two more weeks, UMaine needs to find other ways to score consistently.

Men’s hockey lands defenseman

The UMaine men’s hockey team has landed an offensive-minded defenseman.

Josh Van Dyk of Woodstock, Ontario, who is tied for the league lead in goals among defensemen in the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League, has verbally committed to attend Maine on a full scholarship next fall.

Van Dyk has 14 goals and 25 assists, including eight goals and 14 assists on the power play, in 33 games for the Hamilton Red Wings.

“Josh is a highly skilled defenseman,” said Hamilton coach John McDonald. “He has great vision, he moves the puck with authority, and his feet are his greatest attribute. He can skate out of most problems he gets into.”

McDonald said Van Dyk has a “fairly decent shot” that could use some improvement.

“He has a quick release and he puts it on net probably 85 percent of the time. That’s the key to everything,” said McDonald.

The 20-year-old Van Dyk, who stands nearly 6-foot-1 and weighs 185 pounds, is also good in the defensive zone.

“He doesn’t get beat because of his feet. He has the ability to recover quickly,” said McDonald.

“The hockey sold me,” said Van Dyk about his decision to choose Maine over a couple of other schools. “They have a great hockey program. And they have a great business school. My parents [Ken and Margaret] have always been sticklers for education. They told me I had to get my education in order to play hockey.”

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me,” he added.

His coming to Maine is contingent upon his acceptance by the school and compliance with NCAA initial-eligibility requirements.