AMHERST, Mass. – One winning streak ended and another continued Friday night.

The University of New England played shutdown defense to near perfection and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III women’s basketball tournament with a 67-58 victory over Bridgewater State at LeFrak Gymnasium.

The Nor’easters (25-4), winners of 20 straight games, will face Amherst (27-1) at 6 p.m. Saturday. The Lord Jeffs beat Framingham State, 67-39.

“I’m estatic,” said senior captain Beth Suggs, who had 26 points and 13 rebounds. “I’ve never advanced to the second round before. We are like glue. We did this as a team.”

Bridgewater State, which saw its 11-game winning streak snapped, closed at 23-4.

“We knew we had to defend from 3-point range,” UNE Coach Anthony Ewing said.

The Nor’easters recovered nicely from a sluggish start. They took control of a low-scoring game midway through the first half.

Bridgewater State just could not get into an offensive gear. The University of New England took away anything in the paint by being aggressive.

The Nor’easters forced the Bears to miss inside as well as from the outside.

The Bears shot a woeful 20 percent (6 of 30) during the first half.

Suggs, of Bath, dominated the game both offensively and defensively.

“Beth came up big,” Ewing said.

“She had a huge game.”

Bridgewater Coach Bridgett Casey knew her team had no answer for Suggs.

“You need to put a body on her or else she’s going to get offensive rebounds,” Casey said.

Kelly Coleman had 15 poins for the Nor’easters and Meghan Gribbin finished with 11. UNE overcame a rare 24-turnover game.

Bridgewater came out much better during the second half and a 6-0 run sliced the Nor’easters’ lead to 31-26 with 18:17 remaining.

A 3-pointer by Jenna Williamson cut the lead to three 32-29. But Suggs completed a three-point play four minutes into the half to give the Nor’easters a 35-29 edge.

And that’s as close as the Bears could come.

It was a matter of the Nor’easters getting back to playing the brand of defense that worked so well for them during the first half. The Nor’easters denied the Bears in the paint and continued to force turnovers.

Suggs scored from the paint with 7:52 left to give the Nor’easters a 51-41 bulge, but the Bears would not go away. A 5-0 Bridgewater run sliced the lead to 51-46.

Twice the Bears had chances to make it a three-point deficit, but each time the Nor’easters denied the opportunities. Suggs grabbed an offensive rebound and scored to give the Nor’easters a 57-48 lead with four minutes remaining.

Perhaps it was a case of tournament jittters as both teams combined for seven turnovers during the opening four minutes — four of them committed by the Nor’easters. Both teams were sloppy and each team missed several shots.

The Nor’easters got going after Bridgewater’s Williamson tied the game at 6-6.

A 3-point field goal by Gribbin sparked a 9-0 run that provided the Nor’easters with a 15-6 lead at 11:10.

The run was capped by a layup by Alanna Vose with an assist from Gribbin.

A Coleman steal led to a layup by Suggs (who had 10 first-half points) that provided UNE with a 28-13 lead with 4:56 left in the first half.