ORONO – Seana Dionne was 0-for-Friday, with Maine clinging to a 40-38 lead against Mercer University. She picked her spot to step up with 13:24 left in the game.

Dionne connected for back-to-back 3-pointers in a span of 48 seconds to help coax Maine on to a hard-fought 71-59 women’s basketball victory in the first round of the Dead River Tipoff Classic at Alfond Arena in Orono.

Freshman point guard Cindy Blodgett sparked the Black Bears in her official debut, scoring a team-high 17 points as Maine played before a record home crowd of 3,533 fans. She also contributed four assists and two steals.

Maine advances to Saturday’s 7 p.m. Dead River Classic championship game against Northern Illinois, an 82-51 victor over Army in Friday’s opener. Mercer, of Macon, Ga., will take on Army in the 5 p.m. consolation contest.

Coach Joanne Palombo-McCallie’s Black Bears struggled to find consistency, which is not uncommon for a season opener. However, Maine was able to use its depth and versatility to play well down the stretch.

“He’s got that team playing very well,” Palombo said of first-year Mercer coach Billy Holmes. “When we made mistakes, they found them, and that’s a credit to them. We got the ball moving, a little bit of flow on offense. Some shots got knocked down, and that generates momentum, and we were able to take it from there.”

Mercer, 0-1, came out gunning to start the second half. The Teddy Bears outscored the Black Bears 8-4 to tie it at 38-38 on Leanna Wilder’s 18-foot jumper with 15:29 to play.

Erin Grealy put Maine back on top with a long jump shot, buying the hosts some time before Dionne got hot. She scored her first basket of the game at the 13:24 mark, nailing a 3-pointer from the right wing.

After a Mercer turnover, Dionne came back to stick another bomb and push Maine’s lead back to eight at 46-38.

“I was open and it was a wide-open shot,” Dionne said. “I hadn’t hit a shot in the game until that point. I think I was just into the flow of the game and my shot was there and I just threw it up and in.”

The 3-pointers helped get the large crowd back into the game and the Black Bears seemed to feed off the emotional surge.

“It was great,” Dionne said. “Everybody was behind us and the crowd was going crazy, especially when we started to pull away. It was nice to have such a great crowd like that.”

The Teddy Bears hung tough, but Trisha Ripton and Blodgett sandwiched 3-pointers around a hoop by Mercer’s Christy Cogley, to put Maine up by nine with 10 minutes left. The Black Bears put it away with a 9-0 run that ended with another Dionne 3-pointer with 5:16 remaining.

Maine wore Mercer down and forced a handful of turnovers during the spurt, with Blodgett, Ripton, and Catherine Gallant leading the way. Gallant was the unsung heroine, battling hard underneath while finishing with 12 points and eight rebounds to key an otherwise sluggish inside attack for Maine.

Ripton netted 12 points, dished out five assists, and made three steals. Grealy and Guidi provided gritty defense.

Blodgett’s steady ballhandling and passing were instrumental in Maine committing only 13 turnovers. She was almost at a loss for words after the game.

“Yeah, I had butterflies. I still do,” Blodgett said of her first college game.

Kate Bosma was the primary offensive weapon for the Teddy Bears in the first half, scoring 12 of her game-high 19 points in the first 20 minutes. Maine actually led all the way, with Gallant’s determined positional play inside giving the Black Bears some much-needed help when the offense wasn’t clicking.

Bosma pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds and handed out five assists. Cogley provided 12 points and eight rebounds, and Lashon Brown chipped in with 11 points and five assists for Mercer.

Black Bears 71, Lady Bears 59

Mercer Maine

Name G AG F AF TP Name G AG F AF TP

Gresham 0 2 0 0 0 Grealy 3 10 0 0 6

Wright 0 5 0 1 0 Blodgett 6 13 2 2 17

Wilder 3 4 0 0 6 Gallant 3 5 6 8 12

Cogley 6 10 0 0 12 Carver 0 0 0 0 0

Brown 5 9 1 3 11 Rustad 0 2 0 0 0

Bosma 8 17 3 5 19 Porrini 3 9 0 0 6

Layman 1 3 0 0 3 Dionne 3 5 2 2 11

Simpson 0 1 0 0 0 Ripton 3 7 4 5 12

Creekmore 1 2 2 2 4 Sullivan 0 2 0 0 0

Williams 2 3 0 0 4 Guidi 3 5 1 2 7

Totals 26 56 6 11 59 Totals 24 58 15 19 71

Mercer 30 59

Maine 34 71

3-pt. goals: Mercer (1-1): Layman 1-1; Maine (8-19): Blodgett 3-8, Rustad 0-1, Dionne 3-4, Ripton 2-6