TOWSON, Md. – Jamie Cassidy scored 23 points and pulled down 12 rebounds as the University of Maine women’s basketball team routed Towson University 72-52 Thursday night in a battle between the America East co-leaders.

Cassidy and three other Black Bears shared the bulk of the scoring load as Maine played its first game without senior guard Cindy Blodgett, the nation’s second-leading scorer in NCAA Division I. It was the first game Blodgett missed in her Black Bear career.

Also turning in sharp efforts for UMaine, now 8-2 for the season and 4-0 in America East, were Kristen McCormick with 12 points and Martina Tinklova and Klara Danes with 10 each.

Cassidy was 10-for-15 from the floor to spark a hot shooting night for the Bears, who shot 57 percent from the floor for the game and 63 percent in the second half.

The Tigers (7-5, 3-1) had stayed close through the first half, trailing only by 35-33 at halftime, but Maine used its height advantage in the second half, and the Tigers’ shot only 26 percent from the floor in the second half.

Shniece Perry led the Tigers with 13 points, but leading scorer Jess Gordon was held to six points on 3-for-15 shooting.

Maine next faces Delaware at 2 p.m. Saturday in Newark, Del.

Connecticut 101, St. John’s 48

NEW YORK – Nykesha Sales scored 27 points as No. 3 Connecticut beat St. John’s 101-48 in Big East Conference women’s basketball Thursday night.

It was the 10th time in 16 games that the 6-foot senior forward was the leading scorer for Connecticut (14-1 overall, 5-0 Big East). Sales made 11 of 18 shots.

Svetlana Abrosimova, a freshman forward from Russia, had 15 points in her third start for Connecticut and Paige Sauer, Amy Duran and Rita Williams each had 11.

Connecticut pushed the lead to 82-34 with 7:54 to play and cleared its bench in winning its 10th straight over St. John’s (3-10, 1-4).

Ebony Dickinson had 16 points to pace St. John’s and Adrijana Bedelov had 11.

The Huskies were 17-of-34 from the field in building a 49-25 halftime lead and finished 34-of-63 (54 percent). Connecticut had a 40-35 rebounding advantage and created 33 St. John’s turnovers.

Connecticut made eight 3-pointers in the first half and 11 for the game, matching a school record established twice before.

St. John’s closed to 22-14 after a jumper by Cristina Jorif with 9:59 left in the half. Abrosimova had five points during a 14-4 run as Connecticut took control of the game over the next four minutes.

Connecticut opened the second half with a 12-0 run on the way to leading 68-27 with 12:03 to play.

Men’s basketball

CSU-Bakersfield 82, Husson 69

At Bakersfield, Calif., Charles Woolfork and Marcus Moss scored 12 points and Reggie Malone chipped in with 11 to lead California State University-Bakersfield over Husson College on Wednesday.

Marco Brown finished with 10 points for the Roadrunners.

Tony Tobin and Giovanni Cotton paced Husson with 19 points, and Chris Funk added 16 for the Braves.

CSUB (13-1) 82

Brown 3-3-10, Malone 5-1-11, Germany 2-1-5, Woolfolk 5-2-12, Moss 4-0-12, Cooper, Johnson 1-2-5, Wright 1-0-2, Crawford 2-0-4, Griffin 0-2-2, Bishop, Ellis 3-1-7 Husson (12-5) 69

Foye 2-0-5, Funk 6-2-16, Olsen 2-1-5, McCaffrey 0-2-2, Tobin 7-0-19, Sompatzis 1-1-3, Breen, Cotto 5-7-19

3-pt. goals: Moss 4, Cotton 3, Brown, Johnson; Tobin 5, Funk 2, Cotto 2, Foye

Halftime: CSUB 38, Husson 26