Women's Basketball to Meet Stony Brook in Opening Round of America East Tournament

Game Notes -- Live Stats -- Video -- Audio -- America East Championship Central

ORONO, Maine -- The University of Maine women's basketball team (7-22, 4-12 America East) will look to continue its winning streak against Stony Brook (4-25, 1-15) when the two meet up for the second year in a row in the opening round of the 2012 America East Tournament.

Maine will be looking for its first win in the tournament in five years as the Black Bears' last win came on March 9, 2006 when they defeated Albany in an opening round contest 73-56. A win would also be Maine's first over Stony Brook in the tournament as they are currently 0-2 in the tournament against the Seawolves.

The Black Bears recently snapped a six-game losing streak as they ended the season with a 45-40 come from behind win over Stony Brook. Maine is led by Samantha Baranowski who is averaging 8.9 points per game. Baranowski also leads the team in rebounding at 5.3 per game and is tops in the league in field goal percentage at 48.8%. The senior forward is 12th in conference-only scoring at 11.2 points per game in league action. She also ranks 12th in rebounding in conference games at 6.5 per game. Brittany Williams has been Maine's court general as she leads the team with 31.6 minutes per game. Williams is averaging 8.1 points per game and a team-high 1.0 steals. Williams is currently riding a two-game double figure scoring streak. Ashleigh Roberts has came off the bench in recent contests and is chipping in 7.4 points per game and 3.9 rebounds. Freshman Danielle Walczak has came on strong to end the season as she is averaging 5.2 points and is second on the team with 4.6 rebounds. Fellow freshman Rebecca Knight is adding 4.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.3 assists. Courtney Anderson gets the offense moving for Maine as she leads the team with 2.8 assists. Maine is averaging 52.6 points per game but is giving up 62.7. The Black Bears are fourth in the league in free throw percentage (68.1%) and is fourth in the league in field goal percentage (37.1%). Maine ranks fourth in the league in rebounding at 38.0 per game and second in the league in rebounding margin at +1.3.

Stony Brook (4-25) (1-15 AE) comes into the game looking to snap their 15 game losing streak. In their last game, Maine defeated the Seawolves by a score of 45-40. Kellie Krueger and Tamiel Murray led the squad in scoring with eight points each while Jessica Previlon netted seven points and snared nine rebounds. Stony Brook shot 16-for-53 from the floor for the game while shooting 1-for-4 from behind the arc.Stony Brook as a whole are averaging 43.3 points per game while allowing 55.9 from opponents. Collectively they are snaring 33.8 rebounds per game and blocking 1.6 shots per game. They have a total of 201 steals through the season, averaging 6.9 per game. They are led by Whitney Davis in scoring who comes into action averaging 8.7 points per game while shooting 37.3% from the field. Davis also averages 4.2 rebounds per game to go along with 0.9 steals per game. Jessica Previlon is second in scoring for the Seawolves with 5.4 points per game, however leads in rebounding; grabbing 5.8 per game. She had grabbed a total of 169 rebounds through her 29 games played. While averaging 2.4 points per game, Tamiel Murray leads the team in assists, giving out 2.5 per game and 73 overall. She also leads Stony Brook in steals with 36.

This will be the 25th meeting in the history between Stony Brook and Maine with the Seawolves holding a 14-10 advantage. Stony Brook had won the last five matchups, including a 76-55 win in the opening round of the America East Championship game last season, before Maine defeated the Seawolves 57-44 in Stony Brook on Jan. 21 of this year. In that game, Maine led by as many as 17, including a 33-20 lead at the half. The Black Bears had four scorers total double-figures in the win as Samantha Baranowski and Corinne Wellington led the way with 12. Brittany Williams added 11 points while Danielle Walczak tallied 10. The Black Bears last win against Stony Brook in Orono came on March 7, 2009, a 66-61 win. With a win, it will be the first time Maine has swept Stony Brook since doing so during the 2004-05 season. Maine defeated Stony Brook at home 88-60 on Jan. 30, 2005 before beating the Seawolves in Stony Brook 76-59 on March 2 that season.

The Black Bears are 1-4 all-time in the opening round game with their most recent opening round contest coming last year, a 76-55 loss to #8 Stony Brook. Current Maine senior Brittany Williams led Maine in that game with 13 points and four rebounds while Ashleigh Roberts added 11 points and five boards. The Black Bears are 0-2 against Stony Brook in the tournament with the only other meeting coming in the opening round game back in 2008 at Chase Arena. The Black Bears led 32-28 at the half in that game and led by five with 8:29 to play but could not hold on to the lead as they fell to the Seawolves, 64-58. Maine will be looking for its first tournament win in five years as it last won back on March 9, 2006, defeating Albany 73-56 in an opening round contest.

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