WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – The University of Maine’s season ended with the same type of play that haunted it all season – an unforced turnover.

The worst season in the history of the Black Bear program came to a close Thursday night as ninth-seeded Stony Brook pulled out a 64-58 victory over No. 8 UMaine in the first round of the America East Women’s Basketball Championship at the University of Hartford’s Chase Arena.

Coach Cindy Blodgett’s Black Bears wind up 7-23, while the Seawolves (8-22) advanced to today’s 6 p.m. quarterfinal contest against top-seeded tourney host Hartford.

Blodgett candidly summed up her thoughts on the season-ending loss.

“We won seven games. Let’s not fool ourselves, there’s a boatload of work to be done,” Blodgett said of her team. “I hope this bothers them [the players]. It surely bothers me.”

Despite having only eight players in uniform because of two season-ending injuries and two recent player departures, UMaine went down to the wire with Stony Brook and came up short.

The Seawolves scored 23 points off UMaine’s 24 turnovers and outrebounded the Bears 44-38 to find the winning edge. They also scored 21 second-chance points, coming down with 19 offensive rebounds.

“Nineteen offensive boards is ridiculous,” Blodgett said, complimenting Stony Brook’s effort. “I think this might be the second time in conference play that we’ve been outrebounded.”

Stony Brook also emerged with a 23-13 advantage from the foul line, despite missing 13 foul shots along the way.

“I think the biggest difference was rebounding, and we got to the line,” said SBU coach Michele Cherry. “We were aggressive and we attacked their zone.”

UMaine also had some excellent scoring chances go by the wayside down the stretch, enabling SBU to keep the lead and eventually take the win.

“We definitely were in it all game, our energy was there,” said UMaine sophomore Brittany Boser. “People were working hard today, but the outcome wasn’t exactly what we wanted.”

Junior Colleen Kilmurray led the way for UMaine with 17 points and six rebounds, while Boser and Amanda Tewksbury added 10 points each. The Bears shot 40 percent from the field.

Kristin Baker of Bingham handed out eight assists, but committed nine turnovers, and senior Kris Younan dished off for six assists to go with four points and five rebounds in her collegiate finale.

Kirsten Jeter was a force for Stony Brook, tossing in a game-high 21 points along with 12 rebounds and six steals. Aly Young contributed 13 points, six boards and four steals.

The seesaw contest was finally decided in the last four minutes. Young buried a momentum-building 3-pointer with 3:40 left to give SBU the lead for good, then Jeter added a foul shot to make it 58-54.

Two Younan free throws cut the deficit to two with 2:40 to play, but UMaine got no closer despite having some good scoring chances.

“We had multiple opportunities throughout the game. I thought we missed way too many layups,” Blodgett said. “For us, momentum-wise, we need to hit those layups.”

Perhaps the clincher for SBU came with 1:03 left, when Jodie Plikus tracked down the rebound of Jeter’s second straight missed free throw. The Seawolves called timeout and eventually got a close-range basket by Morgan Patrick to make it a two-possession game with 36.6 seconds left.

“We had missed some key rebounds and didn’t get stops down at the end like we had hoped or were trying to get,” Kilmurray said. “We missed a few shots.”

UMaine mustered only one basket – Kilmurray’s hoop from underneath with 37 seconds remaining – in the last 8:26 and committed five turnovers in that same span.

“Twenty-four turnovers again. It’s the same story every single game,” Blodgett said. “At some point, that can’t be OK.”

The Bears survived 12 first-half turnovers, settling down long enough to erase a 10-point deficit and build a 32-28 halftime lead.

UMaine had difficulty handling the Seawolves’ full-court pressure, which came mostly off made baskets. Stony Brook also came up with a few steals off trapping in the frontcourt.

The Seawolves controlled the play during the first 11-plus minutes, cashing in on a few turnovers and grabbing several offensive rebounds while taking a 22-12 lead with 8:14 left.

The Bears finally regained their composure, playing more cohesive defense in their matchup zone and executing at the offensive end.

Kilmurray ended a three-minute UMaine scoring drought with a fast-break layup off a long Younan pass at the 8:05 mark and the Bears seized the chance to finally generate some momentum.

SEAWOLVES 64, BLACK BEARS 58

Stony Brook (8-22) Maine (7-23)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Nunn 2 13 4 6 8 Younan 1 5 2 4

Ferraro 0 3 1 2 1 Baker 1 2 2

Horsey 3 8 2 2 8 Boser 5 13 10

Young 6 15 0 2 13 Twksbury 3 10 4 6 10

Jeter 6 10 9 14 21 Kilmurray 7 13 2 2 17

Plikus 0 4 3 4 3 Mosher 1 2 4

Rushin 1 5 3 4 5 Vaitkute 4 8

Daniels 0 0 0 0 0 Bratishko 0 3

Davis 0 0 0 0 0

Patrick 2 3 1 2 5

Totals 20 61 23 36 64 Totals 22 55 13 17 58

Stony Brook 28 64

Maine 32 58

3-pt. goals – Stony Brook (1-12): Young 1-5, Nunn 0-3, Horsey 0-1, Plikus 0-3; Maine (1-4): Kilmurray 1-2, Younan 0-1, Baker 0-1

Attendance: 834