Great Danes’ defense hounds Bears Sanders helps lead Albany past UMaine

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ORONO – The University of Maine women’s basketball team has endured its share of challenges this season. The setbacks continued Wednesday night against Albany.

The Great Danes took advantage of their speed, talent and depth, wearing down the Black Bears on their way to a 69-54 America East victory at Alfond Arena.

UMaine, which slipped to 6-17 overall, 3-7 in league play, suffered another key loss when freshman guard Emily Rousseau of Biddeford went down with an injury to her right knee.

That gave the undermanned Bears even more problems as they tried to contend with a surging Albany ballclub (9-14, 7-3 AE) that occupies third place in the conference standings.

“[Rousseau’s] health is much more important than this game,” said UMaine coach Cindy Blodgett. “I hate to see any player go down [with an injury] and I certainly hate to see ’em go down – ughh.”

Albany utilized the same formula – pressure defense and attacking offense – to beat UMaine as during its 78-46 win last month in New York.

The Great Danes hounded the Black Bears into 24 turnovers and converted them into 31 points while winning their fifth straight game – the most since Albany became a Division I program.

“What we do is we wear you out on the defensive end, we press you, and then we’ll attack you (on offense) – so we get you from both ends,” said Albany coach Trina Patterson. “Ultimately, our opponents don’t shoot well in the second half.”

A dedicated group of approximately 300 fans braved the rain and slush to watch the contest at Alfond Arena, which experienced some water leakage on the upper level as a result of the stormy weather.

UMaine (6-17, 3-7 AE) fought hard, but was unable to overcome its turnovers and lack of depth.

Sophomore Amanda Tewksbury led the Bears with 11 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals, while Colleen Kilmurray (five rebounds, three steals) and Tanna Ross of Newburgh tossed in 10 points each.

UMaine grabbed a 39-28 rebounding advantage.

“There’s some improvement, but we’re not looking to lose by 15 as opposed to 32,” Blodgett said. “That’s not the direction we’re headed.”

Gia Sanders sparked Albany with 19 points and six rebounds, while Kristin Higy contributed 15 points. The visitors shot 46 percent from the floor and connected for nine 3-pointers.

Rousseau was hurt with 4:01 left in the first half when she appeared to get tangled up with Ross in the lane and fell awkwardly. The Bears tried to play through the emotion of the situation.

“It’s tough to see her get hurt, but we try during the game not to worry too much about that and use what we have (personnel-wise) at the moment,” Tewksbury said, “but that’s a very unfortunate thing to happen.”

UMaine, which used a 7-0 spurt at the end of the half to get within six points (36-30), was unable to establish any kind of consistency at either end of the floor early in the second half. As a result, Albany put together a 10-0 run that extended its advantage from 45-35 to 55-35 with 12:17 left in the game.

“I think that’s been our problem for most of the season is the first five minutes of both halves, just staying focused,” Tewksbury said.

UMaine finally manufactured some offense as Tewksbury scored four points to fuel a 9-0 burst that got the hosts back within 12 (58-46) at the 7:37 mark.

Christina Mosher of Farmington kicked off the run with two free throws and Tewksbury made two more, before Kilmurray provided a three-point play with a fast-break layup and foul shot. Tewksbury’s short jumper from the lane gave UMaine a life.

However, the Great Danes ended the run with a Janea Aiken 3-pointer and the Bears never got closer than 12 after that.

“I like that we cut it from 21 to 12,” Blodgett said. “We were just hoping to sustain it a little bit longer. I think if we could have cut it to single digits, that would have put a certain amount of stress on them.”

GREAT DANES 69, BLACK BEARS 54

Albany (7-14) Maine (6-17)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Mikus 2 3 0 0 4 Boser 1 9 4

Iromuanya 2 3 4 4 8 Tewksbry 4 11

Higy 5 11 2 2 15 Kilmurray 3 6 10

McGee 1 8 0 0 3 Younan 3 8 6

Thrower 3 14 0 0 6 Baker 0 1 0

Ford 1 2 0 0 2 Ross 4 8 1 10

Lindsay 0 0 0 0 0 Johnson 0 1 0

Aiken 3 5 0 0 8 Rousseau 2 4

Clements 0 1 0 0 0 Bowen 0 0 0

Sanders 8 10 0 0 19 Mosher 1 5 6

Sterling 1 1 0 0 2 Vaitkute 1 2

Peterson 1 1 0 0 2 Bratishko 0 1

Totals 27 59 6 6 69 Totals 19 53 14 16 54

Albany 36 69

Maine 30 54

3-pt. goals – Albany (9-21): Higy 3-5, Sanders 3-4, Aiken 2-2, McGee 1-7, Thrower 0-3; Maine (2-7): Ross 1-3, Kilmurray 1-1, Younan 0-1, Johnson 0-1, Rousseau 0-1

Attendance: 1,656 (tickets issued)