PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The University of Maine at Presque Isle women’s basketball team ended its string of seven losses in a row to begin the season by beating the University of New Brunswick-St. John Saturday, 49-46.
The contest kicked off the Can-Am Classic, which consisted of two women’s games and two men’s games pitting the Owls against UNB-St. John over the weekend at Wieden Gymnasium.
Gavin Kane picked up his first victory at the helm of the UMPI women’s squad, which opened up a 10-point lead early in the third quarter before the Seawolves came back to knot the score with less than a minute to play. Late free throws by Marissa Reagle and Rhylee Wright allowed the Owls to hang on.
Wright had 19 points and 17 rebounds, along with six blocked shots, to lead UMPI. Emilia Churchill added seven points for the winners.
UNB-St. John rebounded the following afternoon to pull out a 50-41 overtime win. In a sloppy game that saw the teams combine for 89 turnovers (52 by UMPI and 37 by the Seawolves) and shoot poorly from the field (28 percent for the Owls, 24.7 percent for UNB-St. John), Kathryn Magee came off the bench to score 15 points to key the victory.
Wright scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the hosts and Jessy Dickison provided eight points.
The UMPI men improved to 7-6 by sweeping the Seawolves Saturday and Sunday. The final score was 76-58 on the first night, while UMPI rolled to a 95-61 victory the following afternoon.
On Saturday, Kevin Collins had 18 points and Maurice Harris 17 points and 10 rebounds to key the Owls. Ronkevis Clardy tallied 13 points and dished out six assists and Wilburn Griffiths had 10 points and seven boards.
The next day, Anthony Chacho was high scorer for UMPI with 23 points on 9-for-11 shooting from the field. He also added eight rebounds and four assists. Griffiths put in 15 points and pulled down nine rebounds and Deandre Duncombe notched 11 points to go along with eight assists. Clardy was solid again with 11 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.
