BANGOR — The basketball was rolling on the floor with 19 seconds left in a game that hung in the balance.

Albany did what it always does in those situations – turned a moment of desperation into the points that sealed another victory.

Additional Images

Sigi Koizar of Maine attempts to control the ball while fending off pressure from Margarita Rosario, left, and Sarah Royals of Albany in the second half of Albany’s 49-43 victory at the Cross Insurance Center.

Tiana-Jo Carter, left, who led Lake Region to the Class B state championship last season, scrambles for a loose ball Saturday with Lauren Bodine of Maine. In her freshman year, Carter is averaing 7.6 points and 6.6 rebounds for Albany, with 10 blocks and 11 steals. Photos by Michael C. York/Special to the Telegram

The Great Danes won their 25th consecutive America East road game Saturday, escaping with a 49-43 victory over Maine at the Cross Insurance Center.

Leading by a single point, with the crowd of 2,029 roaring, Albany guard Sarah Royals gathered that loose ball near midcourt and heaved it toward the basket as the shot clock hit 1 second.

Maine’s Sigi Koizar was too aggressive in guarding her and made contact with her arm. The officials called a foul and awarded Royals three free throws, which she made.

Courtney Anderson of the Black Bears then threw a pass that hit the bottom of the backboard and Albany, which has won three consecutive conference titles, pulled out a 10th straight win over Maine (8-5, 0-1 America East).

“Sarah always does something like that down the stretch,” Albany Coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson said of Royals.

Maine Coach Richard Barron didn’t protest the foul call and focused on the positives of the close loss in his postgame remarks.

“It was a one-point game with 20 seconds to go and the ball is loose on the floor. And our best players (Koizar and Liz Wood) were 6 of 24 from the field,” Barron said. “For us to shoot that poorly and still to be in the game says that we’re doing a lot of things right.”

Maine forced 24 turnovers and got a team-leading 13 points from center Anna Heise. It was Heise who pulled the Black Bears within 42-41 with 48 seconds remaining when she drained a 3-pointer from the right corner and followed with a nifty reverse layup.

“Honestly, I was just a little bit mad,” said Heise, who sported a scratch on her face after the physical game. “I just was like, ‘OK, you know what? Let me take some shots.’ And I made them so that was good.”

What wasn’t good was Maine’s defense on Albany’s star forward, Shereesha Richards. She dominated the Black Bears in the post and finished with 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting.

When Maine started double-teaming Richards, Imani Tate came off the bench to score 12 points on mid-range jump shots.

“Whenever she had the ball, a lot of the times we were just watching and letting her make a move instead of just double-teaming her and trying to get the ball away from her,” Heise said of the defense on Richards.

Albany shot 70.6 percent in the second half. Maine shot 34.8 percent for the game.

“Albany has great defensive pressure, but I don’t think they stopped us from getting open looks. We’ve just got to knock them down,” said Wood, who fouled out with nine points.

“I think we’re a better team than Albany is. I think we’re more versatile and we play as a unit more.”

Albany (8-6, 1-0) will get a chance to test that theory when it hosts the rematch Feb. 1.

In the meantime, Maine will lament a game in which it never established an offensive rhythm. The Black Bears held their last lead at 10-9.

Still, Barron said the outcome wasn’t decided by the Koizar foul call.

“We could have gotten the ball back and missed a shot and still lost by one. It wasn’t like we had the lead. The game wasn’t stolen from us on that play,” he said.

“We did other things that weren’t smart to give them the lead.”

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