VESTAL, N.Y. – Junior guard Sigi Koizar scored a team-high 23 points, propelling No. 2 Maine (25-7, 16-1 AE) to a 58-47 win over No. 7 UNH (12-18, 6-11 AE) in the first game of America East Quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon at Dr. Bai Lee Court at the Events Center. With the victory, it marks the eighth straight year that the No. 2 seed has advanced to the America East semifinals.
Koizar, who was selected to the All-Conference First Team on Friday night, went 6-for-12 from the field and 9-for-11 from the free throw line. She now has tallied double-digits in 28 of Maine’s 30 games this season. Senior forward Liz Wood added 13 points and 10 rebounds.
“A lot of credit goes to New Hampshire.” Maine head coach Richard Barron said. “They won four out of five games heading into today and made it difficult on us. A shout out to Elizabeth Belanger who has been terrific for four years and is a credit to our conference.”
Koitzar had 19 of her points in the first half, playing all 20 minutes, as the Black Bears took a 33-27 lead at the break.
Belanger, who led the Wildcats with 23 points and five rebounds, scored 14 points during the first half and played the entire game. Sophomore center Carlie Pogue finished the game with 11 points and a team-high six rebounds.
UNH closed the gap at the end of the third quarter getting to within 39-36 to start the fourth quarter.
With 4:43 UNH kept themselves in it, with an and-1 from sophomore guard Peyton Booth to cut the lead to 46-43. From there, however, the Black Bears went on a 12-4 run to finish the game.
For UNH, senior guard Elizabeth Belanger finishes her career fifth all-time in program history with 1,453 points, and seventh all-time in program history with 703 rebounds.
“We fought through until the end and gave a great effort.” Belanger said. “We just came up a little short. Maine has some good shooters and defensively did a good job against us.”
Maine improves to 15-0 against America East teams this season when leading at the half. The Black Bears will now await a matchup with their semifinals opponent (the winner of Stony Brook vs. Hartford) at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
2016 America East Women's Basketball Championship
Quarterfinals - Saturday, March 5 - Binghamton University
Game 1: No. 2 Maine 58, No. 7 New Hampshire 47
Game 2: No. 3 Stony Brook vs. No. 6 Hartford, 2:15 PM
Game 3: No. 1 Albany vs. No. 8 Vermont, 6:00 PM
Game 4: No. 4 UMBC vs. No. 5 Binghamton, 8:15 PM
Semifinals - Sunday, March 6 - Binghamton University
Game 5: No. 2 Maine vs. Winner Game 2 - 2:00 PM
Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4 - 4:15 PM
Championship Game - Friday, March 11
at highest remaining seed
Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 4:30 PM