Women's Basketball Faces Undefeated Kansas Wednesday
11/30/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Game Notes
ORONO, Maine - The Maine women's basketball team (1-4) travels to the midwest Wednesday and will square off with undefeated Kansas (6-0) at 7:00 p.m. cst in Allen Fieldhouse.
The Black Bears will face the first of two BCS opponents this season on December 1st. They will also travel to Penn. State on December 12th. UMaine wrapped up the month of November with a 1-4 record and played in their 1,000th game Saturday against South Alabama.
After playing all but one game at home in November, the Black Bears will reverse that and play all but one game on the road in December. Maine will play four straight road games and play in the Stetson Classic before returning to Alfond Arena on December 29th.The Black Bears lead the America East in attendance with 1,376 fans a game.
Maine won the second half 37-36 but could not overcome the Lady Jags' strong three-point shooting. Samantha Wheeler (Derry, N.H./Timberlane Regional) led both teams with a career-high 19 points and made her first ever three pointer.
Amber Smith (Ipswich, Mass.Ipswich) was named the America East Rookie of the Week after a solid outing in the three games last week. Smith is the Black Bears' first such selection since two players earned the honor a total of four times during the 2007-08 season.
Smith became the first Maine player since Missy Traversi (2001-02) to record four double-digit scoring performances in the first four games of her final freshman season with her 12 points against the Midshipmen.
She leads the team with 13.8 points a game and six three pointers. She also averages 3.4 rebounds and 1.6 steals a contest.
The Black Bears' roster features two players from the Midwest. Sheay Longstaff hails from Topeka, Kansas and Greer Babbe is from Papillion, Nebraska. Babbe made her career debut against Navy in the Dead River Company Classic.
Kansas also hosted a post-Thanksgiving Day tournament and won all three games against North Dakota State, Memphis and Fordham. The Jayhawks are scoring over 80 points a game and are making 47% of their shots from the field. Carolyn Davis leads the team with 19.7 points a game, while Aishah Sutherland is averaging a double-double with 12.3 points and 11.0 rebounds a contest. Davis has scored in double figures in every game this season and has drained 20 points in three contests this season.
For fans who cannot make it to the game, Don Shields will provide radio play-by-play on the Black Bear Sports Network. The game can be heard on WAEI-FM 97.1, WAEI 910 AM and GoBlackBears.com, while live stats and a paid video stream will be available on KUAthletics.com(.)
