GORHAM — Looking sluggish in the first quarter, the Huskies needed a spark. They got it from two of their veteran leaders.
Alexa Srolovitz scored a game-high 26 points, Kimberly Howrigan had a double-double, and the University of Southern Maine moved to 3-0 with a 65-58 victory over the University of New England.
With the Huskies trailing 10-4 midway through the first quarter, Howrigan ignited a dominant stretch, first hitting a 3-pointer and then making a steal to set up a tying 3 from Srolovitz. That started a 29-14 run over the remainder of the half, giving USM a 33-24 lead at the break.
“As Alexa and I have gone through this program, we’ve developed that veteran leadership,” said Howrigan. “We’ve been able to calm the girls down and make them realize this is going to be a back-and-forth game.”
Srolovitz scored 15 points in the first half. She was 10 of 18 from the floor for the game, including 3 of 7 from beyond the arc. Howrigan finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The Nor’easters (1-1) had a tough time putting the ball in the hoop during the first half, shooting just 33 percent from the floor. They finished at 41 percent for the game.
“I didn’t think we were running, really anything. We were forcing some tough shots, driving into double teams, and not sharing the ball. Other times we were just settling for 3s when we should have been attacking the hoop,” said UNE Coach Anthony Ewing.
The Nor’easters cut the deficit to 33-29 with 6:53 remaining in the third quarter after a steal and layup by Sadie Nelson (12 points).
“UNE is a really good team. We knew that they were going to push back when we had that lead,” said Srolovitz.
The Huskies immediately responded by going on a 14-4 run over the next four minutes to push the lead back to 14.
“We have a super resilient team. We have a good mixture of young, enthusiastic kids who are just coming into the program and then you have your veterans like Alexa (Srolovitz) and Kim (Howrigan) who really step it up and know when to turn it on,” said Southern Maine Coach Samantha Allen.
The Huskies outrebounded the Nor’easters 42-27
UNE was led by Sabrina Johnson, who scored 16 points and pulled down seven rebounds.
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