WEST HARTFORD, CT ? The 2006 Friendship Cottage Cheese America East Women’s Basketball Championship opened up with a shoot-out Thursday night as the eighth-seeded Maine Black Bears defeated ninth-seeded Albany Great Danes 73-56.
Maine finished the game with four players in double-digits in scoring, led by guard Ashley Underwood, who tied a career-high with 24 points. Underwood shot 8-of-13 from the floor, including 6-of-10 from behind the three-point line, tying her for third place for three-point field goals made in an America East conference tournament game.
Despite being tied at 35 apiece going into the half, 59 percent field-goal shooting and a tough half court trap helped further the gap in the second half for the Black Bears. Senior Abby Schrader contributed 12 points, all coming in the second half, and a team-high 7 rebounds.
Maine forced the Great Danes into committing 24 turnovers, 18 of which came in the second half as Coach McInerney’s team applied a tough half-court trap, even forcing a shot-clock violation with close to 3-minutes remaining in the second half.
Albany guard Jen Schumacher was the team’s leading scorer with 14 points, connecting on 4-of-6 three-point attempts. The senior knocked down a big three-pointer at about the 5:30 mark in the second half to decrease Maine’s lead to 61-56.
That was the closest Albany came to evening the score as Maine went on a 12-0 run to finish the game, highlighted by an Underwood lay-up after using up the majority of the shot clock, making the score 67-56 with just a little over 2 minutes left of play. Maine will advance to take on the top-seeded, as well as hosting Hartford Hawks on Friday. Hartford took the season series two games to none, including a 24-point blowout in Hartford. The game is scheduled to start around 6 p.m.
The winner of the conference’s nine-team tournament earns the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Story by: Jared Mintz
VISITORS: Albany
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
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10 Jen Schumacher...... * 5 7 4 6 0 0 0 2 2 4 14 1 2 0 3 33
15 Sherri Mikus........ * 4 9 1 2 2 2 0 1 1 1 11 3 2 0 2 35
24 Gia Sanders......... * 3 12 2 5 0 0 1 5 6 2 8 2 2 3 0 36
35 Amanda Ward......... * 3 11 0 4 2 3 3 2 5 4 8 2 3 0 2 35
54 Sharon Majors....... * 2 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 2 4 1 0 0 0 29
13 Devran Tanacan...... 1 4 0 0 4 4 1 0 1 0 6 2 1 1 0 12
21 Tanya James......... 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 9
32 Kelly Martinson..... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
44 Joy Sterling........ 1 3 0 0 1 2 2 1 3 1 3 0 1 0 0 7
55 Kirsten Peterson.... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
TM TEAM................ 1 3 4 1
Totals.............. 20 50 7 17 9 11 9 15 24 14 56 11 12 4 8 200
TOTAL FG%: .400 DEADBALL
3-Pt. FG%: .412 REBOUNDS
F Throw %: .818 0
HOME TEAM: Maine
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
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10 Ashley Underwood.... * 8 13 6 10 2 2 1 1 2 2 24 3 3 0 0 37
12 Lindsey Hugstad-Vaa. * 5 5 0 0 0 0 1 3 4 4 10 2 2 0 0 31
21 Margaret Elderton... * 2 3 1 2 2 2 0 3 3 0 7 6 2 0 1 31
34 Bracey Barker....... * 6 13 3 7 0 1 0 5 5 0 15 4 1 2 0 33
55 Abby Schrader....... * 5 10 0 0 2 2 2 5 7 2 12 2 4 1 0 31
02 Kris Younan......... 0 0 0 0 3 4 1 2 3 2 3 2 2 0 1 18
20 Katie Whittier...... 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 8
30 Brittany Bowen...... 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3
32 Colleen Kilmurray... 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 1 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 8
TM TEAM................ 1 2 3 1
Totals.............. 27 48 10 20 9 11 8 23 31 12 73 19 16 3 2 200
TOTAL FG%: .562 DEADBALL
3-Pt. FG%: .500 REBOUNDS
F Throw %: .818 0
Date: 3/9/06 Site: Chase Arena (West Hartford, CT) Attendance: 703
Officials: Kathy Lynch; Ken Wieand; Margaret Lynch Gadal;
Technical fouls: Albany-None. Maine-None.
Score by Periods 1 2 Total
Albany.............. 35 21 - 56
Maine............... 35 38 - 73