BURLINGTON, Vt. – The Vermont Catamounts are back-to-back America East women’s basketball champions! The top-seeded Catamounts stifled second-seeded Maine en route to a 61-43 win on Friday night to claim the 2026 Air Force Reserve women’s basketball championship.
Maine jumped out to a 9-2 lead through the game’s first six minutes, but Vermont finished the period on a 12-2 run. They never looked back and stretched the lead as high as 20 points in the fourth on the way to victory.
Nikola Priede earned Most Outstanding Player honors for the second-straight year after averaging 17.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.3 blocks over Vermont’s three wins. She had 14 points, eight rebounds and two blocks in the championship. The 2025 MOP as well, Priede is just the eighth player in league history to earn the honor a second time.
Joining Priede on the All-Championship team were fellow Catamounts Keira Hanson, who scored a game-high 23 points in the title game, and Jadyn Weltz along with Maine’s Adrianna Smith and UMBC’s Jade Tillman.
Maine’s Kaliyah Sain was named the winner of the Elite 18 Award for having the highest GPA of any Vermont or Maine player. The junior owns a 4.0 GPA as a nursing major.
The Catamounts will learn their postseason fate during the NCAA Selection Show on Sunday at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
How it Happened
- Maine jumped out to a 9-2 advantage early. Lala Woods’ three pointer 5:31 into the first quarter gave the Black Bears a seven-point advantage.
- Vermont countered with a 19-2 run spanning the first and second quarters to grab 21-11 lead with six minutes left in the second. Priede stretched it to 14, but Maine cut the deficit to eight points at the half.
- Hanson, Priede and Malia Lenz all scored baskets to open the third, pushing the lead to 14 points. It never dipped below 12 points again and Hanson capped off the period with another triple for a 48-31 lead through three.
- Maine did their best to come back in the 4th but Vermont answered every time, stretching the lead to 57-37 on a Weltz jumper before finishing with the 61-43 victory.
Inside the Numbers
- Vermont shot 46.2 percent from the floor and had 34 points in the paint, while limiting Maine to just 28.8 percent shooting and 3-for-16 from beyond the arc.
- Adrianna Smith was a bright spot for the Black Bears with 22 points, 15 rebounds and four assists. In the process she became just second player in NCAA history with over 700 points, 300 rebounds and 150 assists in a single season, joining Maya Moore who accomplished the feat twice.
- Lenz was a force with 13 points, 14 rebounds and one block. Weltz added 11 points and five assists while Hanson had 23 with two blocks.
- Vermont secured its ninth conference title, just one less than the Black Bears who have a league-best 10.
ABOUT AMERICA EAST
Founded in 1979, the America East Conference is an elite NCAA Division I athletic conference that fosters an environment for student-athletes to become champions. Comprised of academically renowned, like-minded member institutions located in the Northeast region of the United States, America East is committed to broad-based excellence and progressive in its approach to supporting its more than 3,500 student-athletes across 18 sponsored sports. For more information, visit www.AmericaEast.com and follow the America East Conference its social media channels, @AmericaEast.
- America East Conference – Where Champions Rise -