ORONO – Thursday night’s exhibition game against UBBC Herzogenburg of Austria gave coach Sharon Versyp her first chance to see the potential her University of Maine women’s basketball team might possess.

It also gave her a peek at an Ashley Underwood she hadn’t really seen in practice.

The freshman from Benton demonstrated intensity and poise, scoring a game-high 16 points while leading the Black Bears to an 81-45 victory at Alfond Arena.

The Black Bears showed off a wealth of depth, offensive versatility, and defensive intensity while dominating the Austrian contingent.

“I like that style a lot,” Underwood said of the Bears’ pressing, running attack. “Run-and-jump is what we used to do in high school. It just brings a lot of energy to the floor.”

Underwood, a former star for coach Paul Vachon at Cony High in Augusta, hit seven of nine shots, including two 3-pointers, in 19 minutes.

Versyp was pleased to see how Underwood elevated her game, especially defensively.

“She hasn’t brought that level [of intensity] to practice and now she knows she can do it,” Versyp said. “She got after it and that’s why she was successful. She wasn’t fazed.”

Senior Heather Ernest of Temple scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds, while senior Julie Veilleux of Augusta added 11 points for UMaine, which shot 51 percent and outrebounded the Austrians 47-27.

Abby Schrader provided six points and six rebounds, Missy Traversi had six points and five assists and Nicole Jay had eight points on 4-for-5 shooting.

UMaine had 11 players log at least 10 minutes. Eleven Bears got in the scoring column.

“It was awesome to see all 14 girls out there playing hard and having a good time,” Ernest said. “It was definitely fun.”

Edit Szoke (seven rebounds) and Gabriella Szoke paced Austria with 12 and 10 points, respectively. The team had only nine players and two did not see significant action.

That played into the hands of UMaine’s pressure-oriented defense, which forced 28 turnovers and held Austria to 31 percent shooting.

Underwood’s scoring included a layup off a Schrader steal, a steal-and-layup of her own, and 26-foot, 3-point bomb.

The Bears took advantage of their depth with full-court pressure that generated several steals and a handful of transition baskets and enabled them to build a 35-21 halftime lead.

Versyp, who subbed five players simultaneously a few times, was more selective in the second half. As a result, UMaine seemed to find more offensive continuity and opened the half with a 19-6 scoring run that put the game out of reach at 54-27 with 12 minutes left.

“It’s very hard to platoon and to put 14 kids in and still score 81 points,” Versyp said. “That bodes that we’re very deep and that’s the thing that I really wanted to make sure we had this year.”

Junior point guard Kim Corbitt played less than three minutes after she took a bump on the head while absorbing a player-control foul by Austria’s Kimberly Alexander. Corbitt was taken out of the game, went to the locker room, then returned to the bench in street clothes at halftime.

BLACK BEARS 81, AUSTRIANS 45

UBBC Herzogenburg Maine

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Klick 2 6 0 0 4 Heon 1 9 2

Minarz 2 8 0 0 4 Traversi 2 6

E. Szoke 4 7 2 2 10 Ernest 5 10 15

G. Szoke 4 12 2 2 10 Jay 4 5 8

Alexander 2 10 3 4 7 Veilleux 5 11

Riel 2 8 0 0 4 Underwood 7 9 16

Gruber 0 0 0 0 0 Hugstd-Vaa 3 6

Geissburger 1 2 0 0 2 Whittier 0 0

Orekhova 1 5 2 2 4 Corbitt 0 0 0

Gay 0 0 0 0

Barker 1 6 0 2

Quacknbsh 2 2 4

Peterson 2 4 5

Schrader 3 5 6

Totals 18 58 9 10 45 Totals 35 69 81

UBBC Herzogenburg 21 45

Maine 35 81

3-pt. goals ? Austria (0-9): Klick 0-2, Minarz 0-1, E. Szoke 0-2, Riel 0-1, Orekhova 0-3; Maine (5-12): Heon 0-2, Traversi 2-4, Veilleux 1-2, Underwood 2-3, Barker 0-1

Attendance: 1,200 (est.)