AUGUSTA, Me. – The Stony Brook women's basketball team put up a good fight against first-place Maine, but couldn't hold on in the second half as the Black Bears came out with a 71-61 victory on Sunday at the Augusta Civic Center.
 
Senior G Shania Johnson (Frederick, Md.) led the way for the Stony Brook, putting up 28 points, with 21 coming in the first half alone. She also added in seven rebounds, five assists and two steals.
 
Despite the loss, the team remains in third place in the America East standings with a conference mark of 9-5.

McCOMBS REACTION
"I thought we had a great effort from our team today. Offensively, we had a tremendous first half of basketball and we had some good looks that just didn't fall in the second half. Maine capitalized off of their offensive rebounds and our turnovers at critical times."
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• Both teams had hot shooting in the first half with Stony Brook holding a 43-41 lead heading into the locker room.
• In the first two quarters combined, the Seawolves were hitting 52.8 percent of their shots while Maine was at 50 percent.
• Stony Brook found its biggest lead of the game at the 6:24 mark of the first period after Johnson and senior G Jerell Matthews (Chicago, Ill.) hit back-to-back threes to go up by seven and force the Black Bears to use a timeout.
• Maine and Stony Brook traded 7-0 runs down the final stretch of the first as the Seawolves found themselves up, 24-21, at the end of the first 10 minutes.
• The Black Bears grabbed its first lead of the game in the second quarter as the opposition scored eight unanswered, but Stony Brook regrouped and reeled off an 11-0 run to reclaim a 35-29 lead with 4:30 left until the half.
• Maine took the lead for good in the third quarter and didn't look back, holding Stony Brook to just 18 points and 28.6 percent shooting in the second half.
• The Seawolves got it deficit down to just three with 6:17 remaining in the contest but wouldn't come any closer.

NOTES

• After hitting three 3-pointers on the day, Johnson is just two away from breaking Mykeema Ford's career threes record.
• Matthews is now tied for fifth in program history in single-season threes with 54 on the year.
• Johnson tied her season highs in both points and rebounds (7).
• Her 28 points was just one shy of her career high.
• Stony Brook led for 18:36 of the game while Maine had the advantage for 19:09.
• The contest featured four ties and three lead changes.

UP NEXT
Stony Brook closes out its three-game road trip at UMBC this Wednesday, Feb. 27. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at the UMBC Event Center.