BIDDEFORD — Top-seeded University of New England battled past third-seeded Curry College, 81-72, to win the Commonwealth Coast Conference Women’s Basketball Championship on Saturday at the Harold Alfond Forum.

UNE (23-5) earns the CCC’s automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship, which will begin on Friday, March 6 at 16 sites around the country. The Nor’easters will learn their draw in the tournament Monday.

UNE’s sixth appearance in the league final since joining the CCC back in 1999 netted the program’s fifth title, following victories in 2001, 2010, 2013 and 2014. UNE is into the NCAA field for the fourth straight season.

Meghan Gribbin tallied a career-high 23 points to pace the hosts ”“ 20 of which came following halftime. Kelly Coleman added 16 points and a team-best nine rebounds. Sadie DiPierro went 4 of 6 from downtown to end with 12 points, and pulled in seven boards. Brooke Flaherty came off the bench to knock down 6 of 8 field goal tries, and Lauren Hayden made it five players in double figures with 10 points to go with four steals. Gribbin also dished out seven assists; Coleman and Hayden each had five helpers.

For the Colonels (17-11), Kylie Beltz had 19 points and six assists. Alyssa Keeney made 5 of 7 from deep and totaled 17 points, while Jeanette Fallon chipped in with 14. Kerry White grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.

The scoring output for Beltz moved her into a tie atop the Curry all-time points list (1,460).

Play was back-and-forth early on, with three lead-changes and four ties during the initial nine minutes. UNE led 20-19 before a 9-0 spurt in 1:40 provided some breathing room; treys by Gribbin and Hayden, and then a three-point play by Coleman, pushed UNE ahead.

A 3-pointer by Keeney momentarily kept Curry within range, but the home side notched the next seven points to go up 37-24. Curry’s Brianna Hoffman, who had all of her eight points in the first half, answered with a triple in the waning seconds of the period to make it 37-27 at intermission.

The Nor’easters extended the advantage to 18 (56-38) a little more than six minutes into the second stanza with an 8-1 stretch that featured baskets by Hayden, Flaherty and DiPierro. The cushion was still 17 (69-52) with 5:21 left on the clock.

Treys by Fallon and Beltz (twice) cut the margin to eight (69-61). Coleman answered with one of her own (first in nine games), but Keeney canned another from distance and Beltz converted a layup on the break to make it 72-66 with 2:34 remaining.

Then Gribbin took over for UNE. The point guard capitalized on open space along the right wing for a 3-pointer to restore the nine-point lead, only to see Keeney respond right back with a triple after an offensive rebound.

Coleman found Gribbin for a back-door lay-in (77-69), and following an empty possession on the Colonels end, Gribbin gained the corner and drove right for a hoop and some harm. Though she only went 2 for 5 at the charity stripe in the last 66 seconds, Curry could just get one more 3-pointer, by Keeney, out of four shots as the rally fell short.

After both squads connected at a 33 percent clip from the floor in the opening frame, the Nor’easters went 17 for 29 (58.6 percent) in the closing 20 minutes. All parties were effective from behind the arc in the contest, with the Colonels going 13 of 27 and UNE making 10 of 21. Six of the last seven field goals by Curry came from long range.

Over the three-game tournament run, UNE out-shot its opponents by a 46-34 accuracy margin, and drilled 31 of 63 attempts from deep. UNE reached double digits in triples each time, something it had done on just three occasions through the first 25 outings of the year.

UNE has won 22 of 23 meetings with the Colonels, dating back to 1999-2000 when the Nor’easters joined the conference. Since the opening of the Harold Alfond Forum for the 2012-13 campaign, the Nor’easters have been victorious in the last 36 contests against CCC competition played on their home court.