ORONO

The University of Maine women’s basketball team earned a No. 15 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will travel to take on No. 2 Texas at the Frank Erwin Center on Saturday at 6 p.m.

The game will be carried live on ESPN2.

Maine, making its eighth NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 2004, enters the postseason with a 1-7 all-time mark. The Black Bears’ lone win came in 1999 when No. 10 Maine defeated No. 7 Stanford, 60-58.

The Black Bears earned the America East’s automatic bid when they defeated No. 6 Hartford, 74-65, to capture their eighth league title on Friday.

Maine is 0-1 all-time against Texas as the Longhorns defeated the Black Bears, 72-34, back on Dec. 29, 1992 in the Bell Atlantic Classic held in Piscataway, N.J.

The other teams bracketed in the Austin site are No. 7 Arizona State and No. 10 Nebraska.

During the 2017-18 season, Maine played against four teams which also earned NCAA Tournament bids; No. 1 Mississippi State, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 5 Duke and No. 8 Miami (Fl.).

American East

The Black Bears captured their league record eighth America East Championship, and its first since 2004 on Friday at Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.

The Black Bears featured five scorers in double-figures. Blanca Millan led the way, scoring 18 of her game-high 22 points in the second half. Millan’s performance earned her the Championship’s Most Outstanding Player accolade. The sophomore went 7-for-11 in the second half while adding two steals and two rebounds. Julie Brosseau paced Maine’s first half scoring as she tallied all 16 of her points in the opening 20 minutes. Brosseau went 4-of- 7 from three point range to help Maine finish with nine triples as a team. For the third time in the postseason, Parise Rossignol provided a key scoring punch off the bench. Her 12 points earned her a spot on the All-Tournament Team. Fanny Wadling rounded out Maine’s double-digit scorers with 10 points while padding the stat sheet with a game-high eight rebounds and team-best six assists.

“I’m really happy for our kids,” said head coach, Amy Vachon. “Words can’t explain it. At halftime we really talked about defense and how we had to buckle down defensively. We weren’t getting stops. We were taking some crazy shots at times. To have five kids in double-figures; that’s awesome. That speaks volumes of this team and that’s kind of how our team has been all year.”

Maine’s free throw shooting was a large factor in its success. The Black Bears ended the contest 15-for-17 from the charity stripe.