Box Score (PDF) | Interview

BANGOR, Maine. – The UMass Lowell (3-12, 0-3) women's basketball team dropped a 74-44 setback to the Maine Black Bears (12-6, 3-0) on Wednesday night at the Cross Insurance Center.

"Maine is a good team," said Head Coach Jenerrie Harris. "We did a good job executing our game plan in the first quarter, but we have to do a better job in the second quarter as teams make adjustments to our game plan. I was really excited about the freshmen and their performance and Nikki Hayner's ability to give us some type of offensive contributions as well. Overall, there are definitely some things for us to take from this game to learn about ourselves and apply to the next game."

The River Hawks took their first lead of the game at 6-4 on a craft post move that led to a layup by Lindsey Doucette (Hopkinton, Mass.) with 3:11 left in the first quarter. Lauren Parra (Islip, N.Y.) added a layup for an 8-7 lead, followed by Nicole Hayner (Bedford, N.H.) swishing a corner three-pointer at the buzzer to send UMass Lowell into the second period with the 11-7 lead.

Behind nine points from Bella Swan, the hosts scored the first 18 points of the second quarter to take a 25-11 advantage, before Katherine Smith (Fort Wayne, Ind.) converted a traditional three-point play to stop the run, with 3:36 to play until halftime. Melissa Frase (Tamworth, N.H.) brought UMass Lowell back within single digits, 25-16, with 1:57 showing until halftime. The Black Bears ended the half on a 6-0 spurt to take a 31-16 lead into the break.

Maine outscored the River Hawks 22-10 in the third quarter, opening up a 53-26 advantage to begin the final quarter. Doucette scored four points in the period, and recorded two blocks to bring her game total to three, a new season-high. Smith converted her second and-one of the night, and Hayner added another corner three.

Doucette added four points in the fourth to extend her streak of 10 or more points to 11-straight game. Hayner finished with a team-high 13 points to extend her own streak to five games, and Smith chipped in 10 points. Making her first career start, Oda Shackelford (Edinburgh, Ind.) grabbed a career-high seven rebounds to lead the team.

Maine had three scorers in double-digits led by Swan's 19. Mikaela Gustafsson chipped in 12, and Sigi Koizar added 11 points. Gustafsson also recorded seven rebounds, while Koizar and Sophie Weckstrom dished out five assists each.

 UMass Lowell is back in action on January 16, hosting the UMBC Retrievers at 1 p.m., the first of two consecutive home contests.