West Hartford, Conn.-- Stony Brook University will advance in the 2008 America East Women's Basketball Championship presented by Friendship Cottage Cheese to play top-seeded University of Hartford in the third quarterfinal Friday, March 14 at 6 p.m. at Chase Arena by virtue of a 64-58 win over the University of Maine Thursday night.
Stony Brook freshman Kirsten Jeter, who was named to the America East All-Rookie team earlier in the day, posted 21 points, 12 rebounds, six steals and two blocks on 6-of-10 shooting from the field. The rookie also hit nine free-throws for the game.
The Seawolves (8-22 overall record) become just the second nine seed to win a game in conference championship history, and first since 1998. Stony Brook moves to 4-6 in the America East Championship all-time.
In the first half, the Seawolves jumped out to lead by as many as 10 points, before Maine went on an 11-1 run to tie the game at 23-23 with five minutes remaining. Stony Brook shot just 29% for the stanza, but 10 free-throws kept them in the game and down by just a 32-28 score at the intermission.
The Black Bears played with a short bench in the second half, already down to eight players dressed due to injury, but senior guard Kris Younan got into foul trouble early and sophomore center Sandra Vaitkute fouled out with still six minutes to play.
At the 10:00 mark of the second half, sophomore Amanda Tewksbury took an inbounds pass to make a layup pushing the Black Bears to a three-point lead, 47-44. Stony Brook responded when senior Aly Young made a jumper just inside the arc to make it a one-point game once again. Two more Maine free-throws gave Cindy Blodgett's squad the three-point lead again. The next Black Bear field goal at 8:29 gave the eight seed the momentum swing, causing Stony Brook head coach Michele Cherry to call a timeout.
The Seawolves used the Black Bears' physical play to their advantage down the stretch, drawing fouls to go to the free-throw line 22 times in the second stanza, and forcing Vaitkute out of the game.
Maine turned the ball over 24 times and shot just 31% in the second half compared to 50% to start the game. Junior Black Bear Colleen Kilmurray scored a team-high 17 points.
The America East Championship will continue on Friday at Chase Arena with quarterfinal action. No. 2 Vermont and No. 7 New Hampshire kick off the day at noon, while sixth-seeded UMBC and No. 3 Boston University square-off in the second game of the session at approximately 2 p.m. Stony Brook and Hartford will play at 6 p.m. to begin the second session, followed by the five seed Binghamton and fourth-seeded Albany to finish off the day. All four quarterfinal games will be streamed live for free via the America East PackCast and available at the America East Zone at www.AmericaEast.com.