The University of Maine women’s basketball team is set to face the University of Vermont Catamounts in Burlington on Thursday at 11 a.m. The game will be held at Patrick Gymnasium and broadcast live on NESN and ESPN+.
Maine enters the matchup with an 11-11 overall record and a 6-3 mark in America East play. In their most recent outing, the Black Bears secured a decisive victory over UMass Lowell, winning 92-42. During that game, Asta Blauenfeldt achieved a career-high 26 points, while Adrianna Smith contributed 21 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists for her tenth double-double of the season. Lala Woods also reached double figures with 10 points.
The Black Bears posted their highest field goal percentage of the season at 54.7% and made a season-best 13 three-pointers. Their defense forced UMass Lowell into 17 turnovers, leading to Maine scoring 25 points off those turnovers.
Adrianna Smith continues to lead Maine this season. She was recently named one of ten players on the mid-season list for the Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year award. Smith leads America East in scoring (21.5), rebounding (9.5), and assists (4.8). She has scored in double digits for seventeen consecutive games and averages 26.1 points per game in conference play.
Asta Blauenfeldt ranks fourteenth in conference scoring with an average of twelve points per game and is seventh in three-pointers made per game at two per contest. Sarah Talon has scored in double digits six times over her last eight games and is fifteenth in conference rebounding with an average of 4.8 boards per game.
In league games, Maine leads America East with an average of seventy points per contest and holds a +6.11 turnover margin, having won the turnover battle in eight out of nine conference matchups.
Vermont comes into Thursday’s game undefeated at home this season (9-0) and sits atop the America East standings with an overall record of 19-5 and a conference record of 8-1. The Catamounts are ranked sixth nationally for defense, allowing just over fifty-four points per game, while averaging nearly sixty-nine points offensively—both marks leading their conference.
Nikola Priede leads Vermont’s offense as she ranks third among all conference players with seventeen-and-a-half points per game; she also stands fourth in rebounding at eight per contest. Keira Hanson adds fourteen-point-two points per outing while shooting nearly forty-three percent from beyond the arc—the best mark in America East.
Thursday’s meeting will be the one hundred eighth between Maine and Vermont historically; Vermont won their previous encounter this season by eleven points (64-53). Sarah Talon and Adrianna Smith each scored fifteen for Maine during that loss earlier this year.
Maine holds a sixty-nine to thirty-eight advantage all-time against Vermont but seeks its first win on Vermont’s court since February seventeen, two thousand twenty-four.
“UMaine”