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BANGOR, Maine – Senior
Niki Taylor scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds, including the 700th of her career, to pace Vermont, but Liz Wood poured in a career-high 30 points to lead the Black Bears to a 74-46 victory in America East women's basketball action at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine on Thursday.
Maine improves to 13-6 overall and 5-1 in league play. Vermont falls to 3-15 on the year and 0-6 in the conference.
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Box Score (.pdf)"They forced us into a lot of turnovers. We had 10 at the half and that is way too many. We knew it was coming, but we didn't handle the pressure well and we let Liz Wood hurt us. We did not do a good job of recognizing where she was to defend her well," said
Lori Gear McBride.
Taylor was one of five Catamounts with six or more points on the night. The Catamounts were held to 34.7 percent shooting for the game and made 20 turnovers in the contest.
Wood scored 21 points in the first half and finished the game with five 3-pointers and added six rebounds. Maine, which shot 37.5 percent from the floor in the first half, improved to 53.6 percent from the field in the second half.
With Vermont holding a 7-4 lead at the 14:49 mark of the first half, Maine put together a 12-2 run, all 12 points coming from Wood to take a 16-9 lead midway through the half. The Black Bears out scored Vermont 16-8 over the final 10 minutes of the half to take a 32-15 lead into the break.
Maine opened the second half with a 7-2 spurt to extend its lead to 20. Vermont chipped away, answering with seven straight points of its own to close within 13, but that would be as close as the Catamounts would get.
Maine's advantage grew to 22 with seven minutes left in the game and the Black Bears easily secured their 10th win on their home floor.
Vermont returns to action on Sunday when it plays the second game of a basketball doubleheader at UMass Lowell. The UVM and UMass Lowell men's teams start the day at 2 p.m. at the Tsongas Center and will be followed by the women's teams at 4:30 p.m.
Kevin Fitzgerald will have the call on WVMT-620 AM (online:
SportsJuice.com) and the game can be seen on
ESPN3.com.
NOTES: Vermont, one of the top rebounding teams in the league, out rebounded the Black Bears 38-31 overall …
Niki Taylor is the eighth Catamount to collect 700 career rebounds … She is two points shy of 1,000 for her career and will become just the seventh UVM player to record 1,000 points and 700 rebounds.