The UMBC Women's Basketball team begins its regular season-closing three-game homestand when it hosts Maine on Thursday night at 7 p.m.

Maine enters tied for first with UAlbany, who UMBC fell to at the buzzer on Saturday night.

In that game Jordon Lewis had a game-high 16 points, but the Great Danes hit a tie-breaking layup with 0.8 seconds remaining to defeat the visiting Retrievers, 58-56. UMBC had led by 11 early in the third, eventually taking a seven point lead into the fourth. UAlbany, however, would hold UMBC scoreless for nearly 7 minutes and use a 14-0 run to take a 53-48 lead with under five minutes remaining. Anna Blount would hit a layup to end the run, and then would follow a Great Danes layup with another of her own before fouling out.

It was 56-52 with under a minute to go when Trinity Palacio stole the ball and found Jaliena Sanchez on the fastbreak for a layup to cut the deficit to two. UAlbany would miss a pair of free throws with 29 seconds left, and UMBC would get the rebound and call timeout. Sanchez made a driving layup with 17.7 seconds to go to tie the game, but UAlbany would wind the clock down and hit a contested layup with 0.8 to go for the win.

Carmen Yánez tallied 11 points and three assists, while Jaden Walker added five points and a team-high eight rebounds. Walker also added three steals and two assists, and Lewis grabbed six boards. Sanchez added 10 points off the bench for UMBC.

Scouting Maine:

• For the second consecutive week, the 7th time this season, and the 11th time in her career, Anne Simon was named the America East Player of the Week.
• Simon guided Maine to a pair of wins while averaging 23.5 points, 5.5 steals, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.5 assists during her award winning week. She began the stretch by registering 31 points on 11-of-18 shooting with four triples to go along with six steals in Maine's 80-57 win over Bryant. Simon followed up the performance by notching 16 points on 7-of-14 from the floor to go along with five steals in Maine's road victory over defending America East champions, Vermont.
• Over the week, Simon climbed to sixth on Maine's all-time scoring list and 16th on the America East career scoring list with 1,820 points. She posted her fourth 30-plus scoring performance of the season while running her double-figure scoring streak to five-straight. Defensively, Simon has now posted five or more steals in each of her last two outing
• In the Vermont contest, the Black Bears (18-8, 11-1 America East), trailed by as many as 12 in the first half at Vermont, but battled back to complete a 57-55 win over the Catamounts.
• The victory, which completed the season sweep over the defending America East champions, extended Maine's win streak to six in a row.
• Maine has now totaled double-digit conference wins in seven-straight season.
• Reigning America East Player of the Year Adrianna Smith ran her double-digit scoring streak to 14-straight as she finished with 16 points and nine rebounds. 
• Sarah Talon matched her season-high with 15 points.

All-Time Series:

• Maine leads the all-time series, 26-14, and has won 10 of the last 12
• Earlier this season, Blount had a team-high 13 points and seven rebounds, but host Maine defeated the UMBC Women's Basketball team 76-47 on January 18th
• Laura Lacambra started four-for-four from the field and finished with 10 points and three rebounds.
• Grace Ceseretti made her first career start and hit a pair of three pointers, while Palacio had a team-best four assists.
• UMBC held a 14-13 lead after the first quarter, but Maine opened the second on a 10-0 run and never looked back.