Opponents relieved as Barker’s career ends

VESTAL, N.Y. – Bye bye Bracey.

Bracey Barker has been among the top players in America East during the last three seasons. She’ll be missed, sort of, by some of the league’s other coaches.

Barker, a 6-foot-1 forward from Bar Harbor, closed out a stellar career Friday afternoon in a 70-57 America East quarterfinal loss to Vermont. She burned the Catamounts for 22 points and 11 rebounds, after which Vermont coach Sharon Dawley breathed a sigh of relief.

“I was watching them warm up and [was] thinking that Bracey Barker is just a phenomenal player,” Dawley said. “I guess no opponent’s going to miss Bracey Barker, but [she had] a tremendous career.”

The former Mount Desert Island star finished her career as the leading free-throw shooter in UMaine history. Barker was 3-for-4 Friday and wound up shooting 83 percent (259-310) over four seasons.

That surpasses former Black Bears All-American Cindy Blodgett, who was an 82 percent FT shooter from 1994-98. Barker leads the nation in that category this season at 92 percent (92-100).

Barker also winds up as the No. 12 scorer in school history with 1,166 points.

Underwood leaves her mark

UMaine senior Ashley Underwood also capped off her standout career on Friday.

The scrappy guard from Benton went out with a 21-point, six-rebound, four-assist performance that moved her into ninth place on the Bears’ career scoring list with 1,195 points.

Underwood, who owns the UMaine single-season free-throw percentage mark at .925 (62-for-67 during 2004-05), also shares the school record for 3-pointers in a game with six. She did so four times.

Senior stamina

Coach Ann McInerney got as much mileage as she could this season out of her four seniors, as evidenced for the last time Friday.

As usual, Underwood set the standard for the Bears while playing 39 of the game’s 40 minutes. Barker played 37 minutes and Katie Whittier of New Gloucester logged 32 in their final games for UMaine.

Underwood, who came into the season trying to recover from a stress fracture in her leg, wound up averaging a grueling 34.8 minutes per contest this season. She also played better than 35 minutes per game as a junior.

Barker, who missed nearly five full games this season with a wrist injury, still wound up playing 31.5 minutes per outing.

“I feel like we kind of had to play all game all season, so if we had to play 40 minutes (in the tournament), we were ready to play 40 minutes,” Underwood said.

Room on the bus

The fan bus sponsored by the Friends of Maine Women’s Basketball arrived here Thursday night with plenty of empty seats.

Only 18 fans took advantage of the opportunity to make the trip and avoid making the eight-plus-hour drive to the Binghamton area. That group plus several parents and family members were among a small group of UMaine fans in attendance Friday.

Also, neither UMaine nor Vermont brought a pep band or cheerleaders to the America East tournament. The bands from Stony Brook and Maryland Baltimore County, who played in Friday’s first game, stuck around to perform during the pregame warmups for the Bears-Catamounts contest.