BOX SCORE
BRUNSWICK, Maine - Southern Maine's Stacey Kent scored a
game-high 24 points as the Huskies women's basketball team held off
a furious Bowdoin rally to take a 75-72 victory on Tuesday evening.
The 25th-ranked Huskies improve to 5-0 while the 23rd-ranked Polar
Bears fall to 3-2.
Southern Maine took control in a sloppy first-half that featured a
combined 29 turnovers and 24 fouls between the squads. Bowdoin
connected on just 24% of their shots and trailed 31-19 at the
break. The Huskies would extend their lead as many as 15 points
early in the second period when Kent nailed a three-pointer from
the wing with 15:39 to play.
But Bowdoin battled back on the shoulders of senior captain Maria
Noucas, who netted four three-pointers in under four minutes to cut
the Southern Maine lead to six points, 47-41, with 11:12 remaining.
The teams traded buckets until the ten-minute mark when a Kent
lay-in pushed the lead back to seven points for USM. A Sabrina Cote
hoop-and-harm was followed by a spinning lay-in from Caitlin Hynes
that trimmed the advantage to just two points, 55-53, and after a
Husky turnover, Noucas buried her fifth trifecta of the half to
give Bowdoin their first lead since the opening moments, 56-55,
with 7:47 to go.
The lead would change four times in the closing moments and be
tied on five occasions, the latest coming on a pair of Katie
Bergeron free-throws that made it 68-68 with 1:14 remaining. Nicole
Paradis drove the lane and found Kristi Violette for a lay-up to
give USM the lead, 70-68, on the next possession, and following a
Bowdoin turnover, Paradis would connect on a pair of free-throws to
push the lead to four. The Polar Bears were able to cut the lead to
two points twice, but a desperation three-pointer by Noucas at the
buzzer did not fall and the Huskies escaped with their first
victory in Brunswick since 1998.
Kent's game-high 24 came on 9-14 shooting from the field, while
Violette's 14-point game included nine rebounds. Paradis posted 14
points for the Huskies. Bowdoin was led by Noucas' 18 with Cote
(13) and Bergeron (12) also seeing double figures. Bowdoin shot 61%
in the second half to get back into the ballgame, and finished with
a 33-30 edge on the glass.
Photos courtesy of Brian Beard and Creative Images
Photography
