Simon's free throws give UMaine women's basketball 59-57 win over BU
Nov. 21—University of Maine junior guard Anne Simon poured in a game-high 26 points, including a pair of game-winning free throws courtesy of a Boston University mistake with 4.9 seconds left, leading the women's basketball team to a 59-57 victory over the turnover-plagued Terriers at the Case Gymnasium in Boston on Sunday afternoon.
UMaine won its second in a row and improved to 2-3 while BU fell to 2-2.
Maeve Carroll's free throw with nine seconds left tied it for UMaine. She missed the second free throw and Riley Childs grabbed the rebound for BU.
BU called a time-out but on the inbounds play, Carroll made a steal and was fouled by Sydney Johnson.
UMaine inbounded the ball and Johnson purposely fouled Simon.
But that was BU's fifth foul of the quarter meaning Simon went to the free throw line for two shots instead of UMaine inbounding the ball.
Teams are allowed four fouls in a quarter without the opponent going to the free throw line unless the opponent was in the act of shooting when they were fouled.
But the fifth foul and any subsequent fouls send the opponent to the free throw line for two shots.
Simon made the first one and made the second one courtesy of a BU lane violation after she had initially missed it.
UMaine head coach Amy Vachon sympathized with BU's Johnson on her ill-advised decision to foul Simon, probably thinking that was the fourth BU foul of the quarter and not the fifth.
"That stinks. You never want to see that. But we'll take it," said Vachon to The Ticket/Black Bear Sports Properties/Learfield IMG College play-by-play man Don Shields.
A desperate 3-point heave at the buzzer by Gorham's Emily Esposito was off the mark.
Simon, an All-America East first-team pick last season, finished with four steals, three rebounds and three assists to go with her game-high 26 points. Graduate student-forward Carroll, an All-AE second teamer a year ago, posted a double-double with 13 points and a game-high of 15 rebounds. She also had two assists and two steals.
Freshman guard Bailey Wilborn nailed four 3-pointers for the second straight game to end up with 12 points. Sophomore guard Alba Orois added four points, four assists and two rebounds, and freshman forward Adrianna Smith gave UMaine a lift off the bench with four rebounds and two points in just six minutes.
Johnson's 12 points, two rebounds and two steals paced BU, which turned the ball over 22 times. Childs contributed 11 points, eight rebounds and three steals. Liz Shean produced 11 points and Caitlin Weimar registered 10 points and six rebounds.
Esposito, a Villanova transfer, had four points, five rebounds and two assists.
UMaine trailed by as many as eight in the second quarter and was down 28-22 at the half before outscoring BU 19-10 in the third period to take a 41-38 lead into the fourth quarter.
Wilborn had two of her 3-pointers in the third quarter and Simon had a three and a basket.
The game seesawed in the fourth quarter with UMaine building a pair of four-point leads only to have the Terriers rally.
Orois' 3-pointer gave UMaine a 56-53 lead with 1:46 left after Esposito had tied it with a jumper 1:11 earlier.
But Childs converted a pair of layups to give BU a 57-56 lead with 33 seconds left.
Carroll missed a layup but rebounded her own miss and was fouled by Esposito on her put-back attempt.
She made one to tie it.
"I'm very proud of the girls," Vachon said. "We got a little luck at the end. But everybody played hard and we made some big shots. (Simon) was amazing. Maeve played very well. Adrianna gave us some (important) minutes. And Bailey hit those threes, which was good."
UMaine will travel to West Point, N.Y., to play Army on Friday at 3 p.m.
