WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Quality depth is a luxury the University of Maine women’s basketball team lacked during its last three forays at the America East women’s basketball tournament.

Coach Sharon Versyp’s Black Bears showed Friday night that they have more than a handful of key contributors upon whom they can call, even with their season on the line.

Top-seeded UMaine shut down No. 4 Albany with its formidable defense and found the offensive range early while earning its way into the league championship game with a 62-49 semifinal victory at Chase Family Arena.

The 24-6 Bears take on No. 3 Boston University at 4 p.m. in today’s title game. BU defeated No. 7 Northeastern in Friday’s late game 71-53. The winner earns the automatic berth into the 64-team NCAA Tournament.

Maine swept BU this season, but lost to it in last year’s title game.

“We’ve just got to take it like it’s any other game, I think,” said UMaine senior Julie Veilleux of Augusta, who scored a team-high 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting.

“Through experience, you can’t completely focus on ‘oh, wow, this is championship,'” Veilleux explained of the Bears’ mindset. “We’ve got to keep playing our game and do what we can do best… and go out and play hard. This is it.”

UMaine’s depth, which was key in limiting the minutes of the regulars, was again a big factor. Nine players logged at least 10 minutes, with none playing more than Melissa Heon’s 25.

Guard Ashley Underwood of Benton and post player Lindsey Hugstad-Vaa played 16 and 10 minutes, respectively, to pace the bench corps. However, starter Abby Schrader also shone by scoring nine points and grabbing six rebounds in 19 minutes.

Eventually, Versyp was able to use all 14 roster members.

“It’s not many times in a championship tournament that you can put in 14 players that have played so hard and have worked hours and hours and hours,” Versyp said. “That’s huge and I think from last year to this year that [depth] is what has allowed us to become a very good team.”

UMaine was in control early, scoring the first seven points of the game. The Bears eventually extended the lead to 33-18 at halftime, then led by as many as 22 midway through the second half.

UMaine’s frontcourt, including Heather Ernest of Temple (12 points, 11 rebounds), Schrader, Monica Peterson, and Hugstad-Vaa, held all-conference first-team center Danielle Hutcheson (12 points, 11 rebounds) to six points through almost 37 minutes.

“We double-teamed as much as we could when Hutcheson touched the ball,” Versyp said. “We were able to rotate defensively, but Abby and Lindsay are very physical players and that’s what we needed to do.”

The Bears took a 7-0 lead on Schrader’s close-range basket, a Heon 3-pointer, and Veilleux’s 19-foot jumper. Soon thereafter, Schrader hit a 13-foot turnaround, Veilleux converted a three-point play, and Ernest made a fast-break layup to give them a 16-5 edge.

“It’s huge,” Veilleux said of the strong start. “We have to come out and we really have to shut them down defensively and hopefully knock down the first couple shots so that the basket looks really wide-open. Fortunately, that’s what we did tonight.”

Albany (13-16) hung around, but went scoreless over the last five minutes of the half while falling behind by 15.

Three 3-pointers by Jen Schumacher (16 points) got the Great Danes within 40-27 with 16:08 left in the contest.

Despite some shooting woes, Veilleux posted a three-point play off her own miss, then hit a foul-line jumper. Missy Traversi added two foul shots to give UMaine a 47-27 bulge with 10:19 remaining.

“After Schumacher hit her one millionth 3 in a row,” Ernest quipped, “we kind of didn’t let that bother us and we kind of just kept pouring it on. We rebounded and ran and that was it.”

Alicia Learn added 13 points and seven rebounds for Albany, but the Bears outrebounded the Great Danes 41-36 and shot 41 percent from the field.

The Bears head into the championship game without the spectre of last season’s title-game loss to BU haunting them.

“Everything’s brand-new, a new slate,” Ernest said. “We’re not going to be thinking about last year. We’re just going to go play, play our style, have fun, smile.”

BLACK BEARS 62, GREAT DANES 49

Albany (13-16) Maine (24-6)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Schumacher 5 13 2 2 16 Heon 2 7 5

Hutchenson 6 14 0 1 12 Ernest 6 11 12

Sweetland 0 2 0 0 0 Corbitt 2 6 4

Learn 5 13 3 4 13 Veilleux 6 10 2 2 15

Jones 3 7 1 2 7 Schrader 4 9

Ayers 0 4 0 2 0 Traversi 2 6

Johnson 0 0 0 0 0 Underwood 2 6

James 0 0 1 2 1 Hugstd-Vaa 0 1

Clark 0 0 0 0 0 Jay 0 0 0

O’Bannon 0 2 0 0 0 Whittier 0 0

Majors 0 1 0 0 0 Gay 0 1 Barker 0 2 0 0 0

Quacknbsh 0 0 Peterson 0 2 2 2 2

Totals 19 56 7 13 49 Totals 24 59 10 14 62

Albany 18 49

Maine 33 62

3-pt. goals ? Albany (4-10): Schumacher 4-8, Sweetland 0-2; Maine (4-15): Heon 1-2, Ernest 0-1, Corbitt 0-2, Veilleux 1-3, Traversi 0-1, Underwood 2-5, Barker 0-1