Ella Lavigne, left, practices with her Central Maine Community College teammates in December 2023. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Ella Lavigne scored 17 of her 34 points in the fourth quarter, including two baskets in the final 20 seconds as Central Maine Community College rallied for a 67-62 win over Cincinnati-Clermont in the second round of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association Division II women’s basketball tournament Wednesday.

Lavigne scored all but five of CMCC’s points in the final 10 minutes. She made a layup with 18 seconds remaining to give the Mustangs a 63-62 lead, then immediately stole the ball and sank another basket.

“She just took over,” CMCC coach Andrew Morong said. “I mean, that was like Diana Taurasi or Sue Bird. She just said, ‘Guys, get out of my way, I’m doing this, I’m getting this done,’ and our girls just knew to get her the ball and get out of the way.”

Riley Hebler hit a pair of free throws to clinch the victory and send CMCC (29-1) to Friday’s semifinals against Miami-Hamilton.

Wednesday is the seventh time this season that Lavigne has scored 30 or more points.

“She just proved how much she’s grown up, because she really struggled in the first quarter, like really, really struggled,” Morong said. “We talked about that at halftime, how she came back in the second quarter, collected and confident. She didn’t let anything that had previously happened rattle her, and that was such a great leadership model for our younger players.”

Cincinnati-Clermont opened the game with an 8-0 run while holding CMCC scoreless for the first six minutes. The Mustangs bounced back to lead 32-26 at halftime, but a strong third quarter gave the Cougars a 46-45 advantage heading into the fourth.

“I figured that we just kept doing our thing and pressing and pushing and all that stuff, that their legs would eventually go, and they did down the stretch,” Morong said. “(Cincinnati-Clermont) struggled to score the last two minutes of the game.”

Chantel Ouellette, an Edward Little High graduate, and Ava Smith each grabbed eight rebounds for the Mustangs.

Tyra Murphy recorded a double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds for Cincinnati-Clermont.

University of Maine at Augusta women’s basketball coach Heath Cowan brings his team together during a Feb. 4 practice in Augusta. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Moose falter

Earlier in the day, UMaine-Augusta started and finished strong, but struggles in the second and third quarters resulted in an 82-67 loss to Johnson & Wales (North Carolina) in a second-round game.

The Moose (26-4) will wrap up their season at 3:15 p.m. Thursday when they play in a consolation game against Penn State Beaver (20-9).

“At (the national level), it’s different,” Cowan said. “The amount of physicality that is allowed that is considered to be incidental is significantly more than we play under in the regular season. In the second quarter, although (the referees) called 10 fouls in the quarter, they could have called 25. I don’t think we reacted real well to it in the beginning. Once we got accustomed to it, and you throw away the second quarter, we win the game by one.

“What we told the kids in the locker room was, ‘You can’t let one game define your season,'” Cowan continued. “It’s been a hell of a run. We’ve got one more game that we can get ready for (Thursday) that we can be really positive with each other and be able to celebrate the successes we’ve had this year.”

Cony High graduate Sage Fortin led UMA with 23 points, while Carrabec alum Molly Hay added 12 points. Forward Lillian Cox had a double-double for the Moose, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

Laken Powe led the Panthers (16-10) with 19 points, while Gabby Tapley and Jordan Durant each scored 13.

UMA jumped out to a 20-15 lead in the first quarter, with both Fortin and Hay tallying seven points. A 3-pointer by Maliah Preston gave Johnson & Wales a 23-20 lead with 8:07 left in the second quarter. The Panthers outscored UMA 25-9 in the quarter and never lost the lead.

The Panthers scored 31 points off UMA’s 28 turnovers.

UMA has set a program record for wins this season, and had a 22-game winning streak from Nov. 19-March 2. The Moose went 13-1 in the Yankee Small College Conference, including an 87-81 victory over rival Central Maine Community College on Jan. 29. The Mustangs later beat the Moose 74-61 in the YSCC title game on March 2. Cowan was named the YSCC Coach of the Year for the second straight season.

“It’s hard,” Cowan said. “Clearly our intentions weren’t to come down here and not get to the final four, that was really the goal. We came up a game short of what our goal was when we started the season. But, (UMA assistant coach Ty Cowan) said it in the locker room, we lost three starters and our first kid off the bench from last year’s team and still got as high as No. 3 in the national seedings. I think we know what we have to do, we have a good group on the bus that’s mostly coming back next year. We’ll see what happens.”