The University of Maine women’s basketball team kicked off a memorable weekend for the school’s athletic program with a 64-48 win over defending champion Vermont in the America East championship game on Friday at the rocking and sold out Memorial Gym in Orono.
The UMaine men’s hockey team completed the special weekend with a 5-0 victory over arch-rival New Hampshire on Saturday in the Hockey East quarterfinals in front of an equally loud and energetic sellout crowd at Alfond Arena.
For the UMaine women, the performance was particularly noteworthy in light of their underwhelming showings in come-from-behind quarterfinal wins over UMass Lowell (49-43) and Binghamton (64-58).
After grinding out their first two playoff victories with fourth-quarter surges, including a 21-7 finish to erase an eight-point deficit with 7:33 remaining against Binghamton, the Black Bears dispatched Vermont in impressive fashion.
The Black Bears didn’t need a dramatic comeback against the Catamounts.
After Sarah Talon won the opening tip-off and Vermont native Olivia Rockwood nailed a 3-pointer 16 seconds into the game, the Black Bears established a foothold in the game and never looked back.
They led 55-33 with 7:50 remaining in the contest and withstood a 13-3 Vermont run to earn their first America East tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth since 2018-19.
UMaine, now 24-9 and winner of 12 of its last 13, will take on Big Ten regular season champion Ohio State, 25-5, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday at noon at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio.
UMaine is the 15th seed while Ohio State is the second seed.
It will be UMaine’s 10th NCAA tourney berth while OSU will be making its 28th appearance.
In Friday night’s win, UMaine had five players score at least nine points for just the second time this season.
The only other time was the 79-61 victory over Harvard on Dec. 6.
All season long, the UMaine faithful waited patiently for the Black Bears to receive the scoring balance needed to complement America East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year Anne Simon, a graduate student guard, and fellow first-team All-AE selection Adrianna Smith, a junior forward.
There had been a handful of games when they had balance but not many. And certainly not on a consistent basis.
Smith has scored in double figures 30 times in 33 games and Simon has done it 29 times.
The entire rest of the team has combined for 29 double-digit games.
So that balance came at just the right time in the title game.
Smith and Simon, the two best players in the conference, again led the way with 16 and 15 points, respectively, but sophomore guard Talon from Windham had 12 points, Rockwood wound up with 10 and junior guard Paula Gallego had nine points.
Talon had scored a total of six points in her previous three games and Gallego had been pointless in her last four games.
Rockwood scored 29 points and shot 7-for-16 from beyond the 3-point arc in the three playoff games after scoring 33 in her previous eight games.
What was particularly noteworthy is an overzealous Smith got in foul trouble and missed long stretches of the game.
She wound up playing 22:50 of the 40 minutes, 11 ½ minutes below her average, but the Black Bears actually extended the lead in her absence.
It was a total team win in what may have been their best game of the season, probably sharing that honor with the 67-59 loss to nationally-ranked Indiana and All-American and Gorham native Mackenzie Holmes in Portland.
And the deafening roar in The Pit served as a valuable sixth man as UMaine concluded the season 10-0 there against America East teams.
There are three aspects of UMaine’s games that are constant: work ethic, grit and defensive awareness.
Head coach Amy Vachon is a stickler in all three areas.
If you don’t work hard, if you’re passive or if you are a sub-par defender, you aren’t going to get the playing time you seek.
Those traits epitomized Vachon’s career as the most prolific point guard in UMaine history with an America East and school-record 759 career assists.
She is a fierce competitor and expects that from her players.
On one possession against the taller Catamounts, UMaine grabbed three offensive rebounds in a row.
That’s a simple case of outworking your opponent.
This trip to the NCAA Tournament is richly deserved for Simon and graduate student guard Anna Kahelin.
Simon is the school’s sixth all-time scorer with 1,957 points and Kahelin came back for a fifth year to try to earn an NCAA berth after enduring three knee surgeries.
Can the Black Bears upset Ohio State?
Can’t envision it.
But, then again, no one expected Herb Brooks’ 1980 United States Olympic hockey team to upset the Russians and win the gold medal.
Ohio State leads the Big Ten in steals per game at 10.6 thanks to its press and UMaine doesn’t have a true point guard.
That’s usually not a recipe for success.
But no matter what happens, this team is one to be appreciated and lauded.
Eight America East championship game appearances in nine years is very impressive and shows a remarkable level of consistency.