BIDDEFORD — After her 27-point performance Thursday night, University of New England guard Alanna Vose gave credit where credit was due.

“I had my Cap’n Crunch for breakfast,” she said with a shrug. In fact, when Coach Anthony Ewing questioned her choice Thursday morning, she told him, ” ‘Look, I know what I’m doing.’ ”

Ewing might want to put the cereal at the top of the game-day menu.

Vose hit 7 of 10 3-point shots, including 6 of 7 in the first half, to lead top-seeded UNE to an 81-56 victory over No. 4 Western New England in their Commonwealth Coast Conference women’s basketball semifinal.

The Nor’easters (22-5) will host No. 3 Curry (17-10) in the conference final at 2 p.m. Saturday. The conference champion wins a berth into the NCAA Division III tournament.

The Nor’easters, the two-time defending conference champions, are making their third straight trip to the final.

“We know what playing for a championship feels like,” said senior Kelly Coleman (16 points, four assists and three steals.) “We want to get back there.”

That desire was obvious from the start. The Nor’easters shot 70 percent in the first half. With the score 5-5 about two minutes into the game, UNE broke out on a 17-0 run, holding the Golden Bears (17-10) without a point for six minutes. Western New England then went on a 6-0 spurt to cut it to an 11-point deficit, 22-11. UNE countered with runs of 17-3 and 12-8 for a 51-22 halftime advantage.

“We started really well,” Ewing said. “When you come out shooting like that, it can be shocking for the other team. The second half was a little more back-and-forth but we’d built such a cushion, it was hard to overcome. Plus Alanna was lights out. We intentionally try to get offensive opportunities for her. And when she’s on, we’re all on board with getting her more looks.”

Runs “pump everyone up,” Coleman said. “No matter where the points are coming from, when there are players diving on the floor or getting rebounds or steals, it gets everyone up.”

McAuley graduate Sadie Di- Pierro, Windham’s Meghan Gribbin and Cheverus graduate Brooke Flaherty helped limit Western New England to 32 percent (8 of 25) shooting in the first half and 37 percent (20 of 54) in the game.

“There’s the danger of complacency and that’s in their heads, to fight that,” Ewing said. “The goal is to play a complete game and try to get better, even at this point of the season.”

Lauren Hayden (15 points, seven rebounds) helped keep up the Nor’easters’ intensity. Despite playing with two braced ankles and a taped knee, she threw herself at the Bears, retaining possession by bouncing a ball off an opponent while crashing out of bounds and diving for loose balls, all with a 25-point lead.

“That gives a message to the other team that we’re there to fight for the whole game,” she said. “We have been emphasizing the need to go for the 50-50 balls. I took it as my role to play that way.”

Dorothy O’Neill led the Bears with 16 points, including four 3s. Chelsea Vujs had 12 points and nine rebounds.

Heading to the final, the Nor’easters say they learned from a bruising, two-game regular-season sweep of Curry, 68-55 on Jan. 20 and 69-50 on Feb.17.

“They have seven seniors so they’re not going to back down,” Hayden said. “It’s going to be a tough game.”

Copy the Story Link