Moose Hand Mustangs First Loss of Season, 75-73

Auburn, ME – CMCC Women's Basketball suffered its first loss of the season Wednesday night, 75-73 to in-state rival UMaine-Augusta. The game was a battle between two of the top-ranked teams in the USCAA, and the squads ranked first and second in the YSCC standings. Breanna Dwyer had a team-high 19 points for the Mustangs while Ava Smith finished with a double-double.

Central Maine seized the early advantage on their home floor with Dwyer scoring six of her side's first eight points for an 8-2 lead just past three minutes in. Josie Friend got a layup to go to push the advantage to 13-5, and Anais Balla Zambo scored all of her five points in the first quarter to make it 18-9 with 1:21 left. However, that would be the Mustangs' largest lead of the game. Stella Laubenstein and Yvonne Roberge traded three pointers in the final seconds, and CMCC went into the second up by five, 21-16.

An 8-3 run by the Moose to start the quarter tied the game at 24-24 only for Caitlyn McCoy to respond with back-to-back threes to put the hosts back up by six. UMA continued to chip away and finally got its first lead of the night with 3:22 left in the half. Bella Petrocci and Emilee Brown had triples on two straight possessions to go up 36-33. Gabbie Tibbett's layup in the final minute made it a one-point game going into the halftime break with the visitors ahead 38-37.

Reigning back-to-back YSCC Player of the Week Hunter Hartsgrove hit a three to start the second half and Smith followed with a layup to restore order. Central Maine stayed in front until Petrocci was fouled on a three-point attempt. The sophomore from Schenectady, NY hit all three foul shots to tie the game at 48-48 with 4:18 left in the quarter. While the score would be tied twice more in the third, CMCC would never retake the lead for the rest of the game.

The contest stayed close right to the end. Safe Fortin started the fourth quarter with a trey to make it 58-54. Tibbetts knocked down an outside shot to cut the deficit to 61-60 with 6:17 left to play and McCoy did the same a few minutes later to close to 65-63. Each time UMaine-Augusta seemed to have an answer. The Moose hit their free throws down the stretch, going 8-for-10 at the line in the fourth quarter to hold off the Mustangs.

Smith hit a layup with five seconds left to make it 74-71, and after a Petrocci free throw, Hartsgrove knocked down two at the line with 1.2 seconds left to make it 75-73. However, two deflected inbounds passes were enough to take it down to two-tenths of a second allowing UMA to see out the game.

The match-up was a battle of #1 ranked and undefeated Central Maine against a UMaine-Augusta team that was ranked #2 in the USCAA until shortly before tip-off when the updated rankings moved them down to #4. This was the second straight year where UMA won on the road at Kirk Hall after losing at home to CMCC earlier in the season.

Dwyer's 19 points were two shy of the freshman from Gold Coast, Australia's career-high 21 set at the beginning of the month against UMaine-Fort Kent. Smith finished with 12 points and 11 rebound for her second double-double of the year. McCoy had nine off the bench on three triples, Tibbetts finished with eight, and Laubenstein recorded six points. Abilene Corson and Keilani Horne each had a team-high five assists. UMA had four players in double figures with Petrocci (17), Fortin (16), Roberge (14), and Brown (12). The Mustangs outshot the Moose 42.9% to 32.4% and won the rebound battle 40-35, but were undone by the visitors' 16 offensive boards and 21 points off turnovers.

Central Maine gets right back on the horse with another conference game on Thursday night. The Mustangs travel to Portsmouth, NH to take on the Great Bay Herons at 6:00 pm.