Women's Basketball Downs New Brunswick 88-38 in Exhibition Action
11/2/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
ORONO, Maine – A balanced offensive attack was the name of the game for the Maine women's basketball team as five different players recorded double-digit points in an 88-38 win over New Brunswick in the team's opening exhibition contest at Memorial Gym on Saturday evening.
The Black Bears spread the scoring around with five different players recording double-digit point totals. Liz Wood (Catlett, Va.) (15 points), Courtney Anderson (Greene, Maine) (13 points), Ashleigh Roberts (Wilmington, Del.) (13 points), Sophie Weckstrom (Espoo, Finland) (10 points) and Sigi Koizar (Vienna, Austria) (13 points), all broke the double-digit plateau.
Maine shot 46 percent in the game while hitting 34 percent of their 3-point shots.
Meanwhile the Varsity Red struggled shooting 24 percent from the field and 18 percent from beyond the arc.
As has been the case for the majority of her career, Wood owned the paint pacing Maine in rebounds with eight while Sheraton Jones (Anaheim Hills, Calif.) matched it with eight of her own.
The Black Bears came out firing in the first half jumping out to a 17-3 lead nearly mid-way through the first half.
Lauren Bodine (Louisville, Ky.) opened with a trey less than a minute into the contest, while a smothering Maine defense held New Brunswick scoreless for the first five minutes, forcing the Varsity Reds to go 1-of-9 from the field.
Back-to-back 3-point shots from Koizar and Weckstrom highlighted the run as Black Bears went 3-of-6 from three-point land through the first half of the frame.
Bodine and Wood layups with under 10-minutes left in the first half gave the Black Bears a 19-point lead. Meanwhile the Maine defense continued its stout play shutting out New Brunswick for nearly six minutes.
The Black Bears finished the half on a 19-7 run, highlighted by Anderson three-pointer as the Black Bears went into halftime up 45-11.
The Black Bears were sniping threes throughout the half, shooting 5-of-13 in the game's first 20 minutes of play.
They also dominated in the paint, recording 24 points down low while New Brunswick only managed two points through the first half.
The Varsity Red struggled to muster offense shooting 14 percent (3-for-21) from the field and 2-of-8 from beyond the arc.
New Brunswick opened up the second frame on a 9-8 run heading into the first media timeout. Farah made two field goals as she cut the lead to 53-20.
The Black Bears poured on the offense coming out of the stoppage as Weckstrom nailed a trey and Koizar made a free throw to make it 57-20.
Koizar followed that up by draining a three-pointer minutes later to increase the Black Bear lead to 62-22.
Ali Nalivaika (Worcester, Mass.) gave the Black Bears their biggest lead of the game with 18 seconds left in the game as she drained a three-pointer to give Maine a 88-38 lead.
Maine's offense churned throughout the second frame as they outscored the Varsity Red 43-27 to complete the victory.
The Black Bears will have one final exhibition before heading into the regular season as the team will play Southern Maine at the new home for the Black Bears, the Cross Insurance Center. That contest is slated for 7 p.m. on Nov. 11.
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