ORONO — Maine women’s basketball coach Richard Barron saw the growth. Now he wants to hear the growl.

His team finished 23-9 this winter, earning a share of the America East Conference championship.

But he wasn’t always sure his players believed in their own ability.

“There’s a certain level of humility that’s great. You want to stay humble and stay hungry,” Barron said. “But we don’t want to be self-deprecating, either. We need more of a cockiness to push ourselves to that level. We’re really nice kids and that’s wonderful off the court, but we’d like to have more of that brash toughness.”

Maine’s season, highlighted by a 14-game winning streak, ended with a whimper. The Black Bears lost three of their final four games. They dropped the season finale at New Hampshire to miss out on winning the conference outright. They fell to Hartford in the semifinals of the conference tournament, denying themselves a chance to host the nationally televised championship game for a shot at the NCAA tournament. And they faltered at the outset of a WNIT game at Villanova and bowed out of that tournament in the opening round.

“As much as we talked about peaking in March, we didn’t,” Barron said. “We peaked a little bit earlier than that.”

Maine will get a chance to rectify that next year when it returns essentially the same cast of players, with another year of hard-earned experience. Reserve guard Courtney Anderson graduated. Freshman Janessa Fauntroy left the program. The only newcomer announced so far is walk-on guard Maddie McVicar of Calais, although two European players are expected to be added during the late-signing period.

But there will be a core group of eight seniors, led by all-conference forward Liz Wood, plus juniors Sigi Koizar and Sheraton Jones. Koizar, a point guard, had a breakthrough season and joined Wood on the all-conference team.

Wood averaged 13.8 points and 7.7 rebounds. But like the team itself, her final games were marked by disappointment. She was held scoreless in the 65-54 loss to Hartford, a game in which Maine missed 50 of its 72 shots and seemed uncharacteristically lost on offense. She scored nine points in the 71-60 defeat at Villanova, when the Black Bears fell behind 38-15 in that one and scrambled all evening to try to catch up.

“There was kind of a negative taste in your mouth only because it didn’t end quite the way we wanted it to. But then you can’t get so caught up in a couple of games. You have to step back,” Wood said.

“I think we really came together as a team and showed that we’re a team to be taken seriously. I think that gives us a lot of confidence to take into next year. But it shows us that we also have a lot of work to do when it comes down to crunch time. Especially toward the end of the season, every games matters. And we had a habit of underperforming, I guess, in stretches.”

Maine continued its ascent in America East, from a four-win last-place finish two years ago, and 17 victories and a fourth-place showing in 2013-14. The players embraced and flourished in an aggressive matchup zone defense that enabled them to hold opponents to 54.5 points per game. Rebounding improved dramatically, especially on the defensive end. On offense the team showed enough poise and passing ability to wait for the best shots, earning assists on two-thirds of its made baskets.

Post players Anna Heise and Mikaela Gustafsson combined for 11.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, with Heise having a series of big performances early in the season. At the end, Gustafsson was the Black Bears’ most consistent player. Sophie Weckstrom started 29 games at guard and became the team’s top 3-point threat, connecting on 48 while averaging 7.5 points. All will be seniors.

Koizar emerged as one of the most dynamic athletes in the league, averaging 14.3 points on 47 percent shooting and creating space for her teammates with her ability to drive.

Wood, who has been the team’s rock since arriving from Virginia three years ago, intends to return in better shape and with some new insight forged out of some subpar performances at the end of the season.

“Don’t let any game seem too big. Because when you let pressure build and let a game seem too big, you start playing small,” she said.

“It’s important for me to realize that and keep myself composed. I play best when I’m loose and just playing the game I love and not worrying about, ‘whoa, this is our last game if we lose.’

“We were playing not to lose a little bit toward the end of the season. I don’t think anyone plays well like that. You lose your aggressiveness.”

Barron is hoping to schedule five or six games against “Power Five” conferences – the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 – to give his senior-laden team an early challenge next season. The Black Bears will undoubtedly enter conference play as one of the favorites (along with Albany). The NCAA tournament remains the goal, but Barron is loath to make that the sole definition of success.

“It’s ridiculous to say that your entire season comes down to one game, that all the good that you’ve done over 30 games can be undone with one. I don’t like the idea that the NCAA is the only thing that matters,” he said.

“I hope we’ll be battle-tested. If we play enough of those games (against major-college foes), that at some point we’ll push through. You stop star-gazing a little bit. When you walk out there, do you think you’re the best player on the floor? Or do you think you’re the best team? I don’t want to play Villanova and be down 20 points in the first half and feel like you’re digging yourself out of a hole. I want us to be able to put together 40-minute efforts.

“I don’t think that our kids see themselves as talented as I do.”

Copy the Story Link