Maine falters in second half, falls to Stony Brook Black Bears to face Vermont in AE quarterfinals

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STONY BROOK, N.Y. – The University of Maine led by 12 points early in the second half, but scored only six field goals in the final 20 minutes as Stony Brook earned a 67-56 America East women’s basketball victory on Saturday afternoon.

Coach Ann McInerney’s Black Bears, who committed a season-high 29 turnovers, finished the regular season 13-14 overall, 7-9 in league play. They have earned the No. 6 seed for this week’s America East tournament at Binghamton University in Vestal, N.Y.

UMaine will play No. 3 Vermont (18-11, 8-8 AE) in Friday’s 2 p.m. quarterfinal at The Events Center. The Catamounts won both regular-season meetings.

Stony Brook (18-10, 14-2 AE) is the No. 2 seed and draws No. 7 Maryland Baltimore County (13-16, 6-10 AE).

The Bears suffered a second-half collapse Saturday while being outscored 40-19.

UMaine, which led by as many as 13 points after shooting 60 percent from the field (12-for-20) in the first half, held a 42-30 advantage after a Kris Younan layup with 17:51 left.

However, the Seawolves put together a game-changing 10-0 run during a span of 2 minutes, 19 seconds, to get back into it. The hosts also clamped down defensively, keeping UMaine off the scoreboard for 41/2 minutes and holding them without a field goal for nearly nine minutes.

By the time Bracey Barker of Bar Harbor (14 points, 12 rebounds) made a layup with 9:02 remaining, Stony Brook led 47-46 and would never trail again.

SEAWOLVES 67, BLACK BEARS 56

Maine (13-14) Stony Brook (18-10)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Whittier 3 5 0 0 7 Orion 1 4 2

Barker 4 13 6 6 14 Smith 8 12 16

Younan 1 3 0 0 2 Ford 5 16 15

Undrwood 5 15 6 6 21 Getz 5 11 13

Greene 0 3 0 0 0 Watson 2 6 6

Baker 0 0 0 0 0 Ferraro 5 7 13

Hugstd-Va 2 3 0 0 4 Thompsn 0 3 0

Boser 0 0 0 0 0 Vsqz-Jcb 1 2

Tewksbury 1 1 0 0 2 Davis 0 1 0

Bowen 1 1 0 0 3

Kilmurray 1 2 1 1 3

Vaitkute 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 18 47 13 13 56 Totals 27 62 16 67

Maine 37 56

Stony Brook 27 67

3-pt. goals – Maine (7-14): Whittier 1-1, Barker 0-2, Underwood 5-6, Greene 0-3, Bowen 1-1, Kilmurray 0-1; Stony Brook (4-12): Ford 1-2, Getz 1-5, Watson 2-4, Thompson 0-1

Attendance: 741