Kristen Anderson was excited to get back to her home state and play about 40 miles from where she grew up in Greene, Maine.
The senior on the UNH women’s basketball team knew all about Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, having won a state championship there in high school.
She said earlier this week that she was hoping to make more memories there. And on Saturday, she did just that, knocking down a crucial 3-pointer from NBA distance with 2:35 left in the fourth quarter of an America East tournament quarterfinal against Stony Brook.
The bucket, which was Anderson’s first of the game, gave the No. 1 Wildcats (26-4) a seven-point lead, their largest to that point, and helped seal a 58-49 victory over the eighth-seeded Seawolves.
“Overall, I’m proud of how the girls battled today,” UNH Coach Maureen Magarity said. “We knew we had our hands full with a good Stony Brook team and have had issues with matchups with them in the previous two games. Thought our ball movement and execution in the second half was the difference.”
UNH will play longtime rival Maine, the No. 4 seed, in Sunday’s semifinal round at 2 p.m. at Cross Insurance Arena. If the Wildcats win, the championship game would be held in Durham on Friday afternoon.
UNH has never advanced to an America East tournament championship game and are in search of the first NCAA Tournament berth in program history.
A night after junior Carlie Pogue was named AEC Player of the Year and Maureen Magarity Coach of the Year, the Wildcats struggled to put a pesky Stony Brook squad away until the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
Pogue continued a dominant season and led all scorers with 23 points on 8 of 12 shooting and a 6-for-8 showing at the free throw line. She was one of three Wildcats to score in double figures. Brittni Lai (15 points, three assists) and Kat Fogarty (13 points, four blocks) each played a crucial role in UNH’s seventh straight win.
“Brittni did a tremendous job of creating off the dribble and getting to the rim and dishing off to our posts. That really got the team going and over the hump in the second half,” Magarity said. “Obviously, Carlie was tough on the block for us and did a great job of making some clutch free throws down the stretch.”
BIG game from @UNHHoops‘ Carlie Pogue to help the Wildcats advance to the semifinals! #AETourney #SheRules pic.twitter.com/2Z4vkWrMQE
— America East (@AmericaEast) March 4, 2017
No team led by more than six points until Anderson’s clutch 3-pointer in the fourth quarter and the lead changed hands 11 times altogether. It was reminiscent of the last matchup between the two teams. Stony Brook kept the Feb. 1 meeting close in the first three quarters but UNH pulled away in the end with an 11-point win.
The Wildcats have won 19 of their last 20. Sunday will be just the second semifinal appearance at the conference tournament for UNH since 2005.
Maine lost both meetings with the Wildcats this season but both losses were by single digits. Pogue averaged 16.5 points in those two meetings and Olivia Healy scored a career-high 16 points in the last game against the Black Bears (17-15).
“I think we match up a little better with (Maine). We need to play a solid defensive game to force them out of their motion,” Magarity said.
(Michelle Berthiaume
can be reached at 369-3338, mberthiaume@cmonitor.com or on Twitter
@MonitorMichelle.)