ORONO – Once in a while, coach Sharon Versyp gets an uneasy feeling about her University of Maine women’s basketball team’s mental readiness to play.

Saturday was one of those days.

With a shot at earning the No. 2 seed for the America East Tournament, the Black Bears turned in a sub-par performance Saturday. Hartford took advantage with a solid effort and ended the regular season with a 72-58 victory in front of 2,198 fans at Alfond Arena.

UMaine will have a chance to redeem itself Thursday at 8:15 p.m. when the fourth-seeded Bears take on No. 5 tourney host Hartford in a league quarterfinal at Chase Arena in West Hartford, Conn.

UMaine closed out the regular season at 16-11, including a 9-7 America East record. Hartford wound up 13-14, 9-7 in league play.

“I was trying to really get into the kids’ heads and talking to them because I could see it in their eyes that something was missing and I sensed that,” Versyp said of the team’s pregame mood.

The Hawks took advantage, pulling out to an early 11-point lead. UMaine catalysts Melissa Heon and Heather Ernest also picked up two fouls each and played only nine minutes in the half.

The Bears, who three times this season had overcome a deficit of 19 points or more and won at home, made four good runs at Hartford during the course of the game, but were unable to regain the lead.

“Our last couple of games we’ve been able to start slow, come back,” said UMaine freshman Missy Traversi, who led the Bears with 17 points, eight assists, five rebounds and three steals.

“But it just goes to show us, it just came back and kicked us right in the rear,” she added. “We can’t rely on always coming back and today showed it. We couldn’t get over the hump.”

Hartford won in Orono for the first time in 19 tries dating back to the first meeting between the two programs in 1986. The Hawks, coached by former Connecticut All-American and current Cleveland Rockers guard Jen Rizzotti, relied on their upperclass leadership to beat the Bears.

“We won at Vermont this year and I told [the seniors] their careers wouldn’t be complete if they didn’t win at Maine as well,” said Rizzotti, who likes what the win could do for her team.

“It puts us in a good position,” she said. “It gives us a lot of confidence.”

Forward Janeka Lopp paced Hartford with 22 points and center Kenitra Johnson provided 16 points and nine rebounds, while Dorcas Miller and Laquanda Brickhouse contributed 11 and 10 points, respectively.

The Hawks converted 22 of 28 free throws (79 percent) while the Bears went 9-for-16 (.563). UMaine shot only 35 percent from the floor.

“We shot extremely poorly and that’s pretty sad on your own home court,” Versyp said. “This time we didn’t make our foul shots and they did. That was the big difference of the game.”

Freshman forward Monica Peterson complemented Traversi with 15 points and 10 rebounds, her sixth double-double of the season. However, Ernest wound up with seven points and seven rebounds and Heon added seven points.

UMaine, which trailed 35-24 at halftime, made a determined challenge early in the second half. Traversi hit two 3-pointers to ignite an 11-0 scoring run that got the Bears within two at 37-35 with 15:59 left.

The hosts had a chance to tie it shortly thereafter, but Kim Corbitt’s 3-pointer missed and Hartford countered with a 10-4 spurt.

Johnson and Lopp scored five points each for the Hawks, who led 49-39 before UMaine made its final push. Ernest sandwiched a 3-pointer and a baseline layup around Peterson’s rebound basket as the Bears closed to within 49-46 with 9:06 remaining.

UMaine wouldn’t make another field goal for nearly five minutes and Hartford put together a 14-3 run that put the game out of reach.

“When I walked off the court at halftime, I was not very confident with an 11-point lead when you look back at the statistics that Maine has put up this year in terms of comeback wins,” Rizzotti said.

HAWKS 72, BLACK BEARS 58

Hartford (13-14) Maine (16-11)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Lopp 7 14 6 6 22 Ernest 3 6 0 7

Franks 0 0 0 0 0 Guerrette 1 3

Johnson 7 13 2 4 16 Moldre 1 8 2

Austin 1 1 2 3 4 Heon 3 9 7

Pezzetta 0 3 0 0 0 Traversi 5 17

Charles 1 6 5 6 7 Jay 0 0 0

Brickhouse 4 6 1 3 10 Corbitt 1 4 2

Miller 2 6 6 6 11 Veilleux 1 5

Price 0 2 0 0 0 Geraghty 0 0

Murray 0 0 0 0 0 Peterson 7 15 1 2 15

Sparrow 1 1 0 0 2

Scott 0 0 0 0 0

Stich 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 23 53 22 28 72 Totals 22 63 16 58

Hartford 35 72

Maine 24 58

3-pt. goals ? Hartford (4-5): Lopp 2-3, Brickhouse 1-1, Miller 1-1; Maine (5-17): Ernest 1-2, Guerrette 1-6, Heon 1-3, Traversi 2-4, Corbitt 0-2

Attendance: 2