ORONO, Maine. – Despite a season-high 57 rebounds, the UMass Lowell women's basketball team (16-15, 11-5 AE) suffered a semifinal round defeat to No. 2 Maine (18-14, 11-4 AE) in the 2020 Hercules Tires America East Playoffs on Sunday afternoon at Memorial Gymnasium.
 
"We hesitated at some inopportune times," commented head coach Tom Garrick. "Even though we dominated them on the offensive backboards and got every shot that we wanted, we still got tired and eventually stopped making them."
 
Although the River Hawks lead for most of the first, the Black Bears would use an early third quarter run off of free throws from rookie Anne Simon to grab the postseason victory. Simon lead all scorers with 21 points on the day.
 
Every River Hawk that hit the court tallied at least three rebounds as senior Brianne Stiers (Denver, Colo.) lead the charge with a career-high 12 boards, picking up eight defensive and four offensive.
 
Sophomore Kharis Idom (Orlando, Fla.) recorded her 20th straight game scoring in double digits, shooting 50 percent from the three-point line to lead all River Hawks with 15 points. Freshman Jaliena Sanchez (Springfield, Mass.) pushed the full 40, dishing out a team-high four assists.
 
Trading points in the opening minutes of the contest, the River Hawks would find their footing off a Stiers jumper at 7:13, going on their first run of the day to jump ahead, 11-6, by the five-minute mark. The Black Bears would counter with a short 5-0 run of their own to equalize the score 11-11, but freshman Shamyjha Price (Pittsburgh, Pa.) would knock-down a shot from outside the arc to put the River Hawks up, 17-13, heading into the second quarter.
 
Maine would add on to their tally in the start of the second off of free points from Simon, once again equalizing the score, 18-18. A solid 5-0 solo run by Sanchez after a three-pointer, followed up by a steal and layup would force a Maine timeout at 6:44 as the River Hawks held a five-point lead, 23-18.
 
The Black Bears would use their time to regroup, coming out hot on a 17-4 run over the remaining minutes to secure their first lead of the game, 35-27, at the first half buzzer. The River Hawks only points would come from a Stiers fast break layup and junior Tiahna Sears (Bunbury, Aus.) knocking down her first free throws of the day.  
 
Maine would continue their charge into the third, picking up seven more points until Banwareesingh and Idom hit back-to-back triples, followed by a Sears layup at 5:45 to trim the home teams lead by four, 39-35. The Black Bears would use another Simon jump shot followed by Maddy McVicar's 11th point of the day to hold a five-point lead at 46-41, heading into the fourth.
 
Coming out swinging in the final stretch, Maine would add on to their tally in the opening minutes for a 12-point lead. The River Hawks would cut the gap to eight with a 6-0 run off of points from Stiers and Idom, but the squad was unable to come any closer, as Maine finished out the contest on a 7-1 run to secure the victory.
 
"I'm really proud of our players and I don't want that to be missed," commented Garrick. "We don't take any moral victories and we never will, we're here to win basketball games. We've definitely come a long way over the year to get to this point and we're looking forward to the results of next season."
 
UMass Lowell closes out 2019-20 with a 16-15 overall record for their most successful season in Division I history.