Hudson's Amanda Torres takes a jumper for UNH during the Wildcats' 58-57 win over UMaine Saturday in Durham. (UNH courtesy photo by Michelle Bronner)

DURHAM – Senior Amanda Torres of Hudson led the Wildcats with 19 points as the University of New Hampshire women’s basketball team defeated Maine on Saturday afternoon, 58-57, at Lundholm Gymnasium.

The Wildcats improve to 2-6 overall (2-3 America East), while the Black Bears fall to 5-1 overall (2-1 America East). The Wildcats snapped Maine’s 15-game winning streak as the Black Bears won their final 10 games last season and their first five in 2020-21. UNH wins game one of the two-game Border Battle series.

UNH rallied from a 57-51 deficit with 1:48 left, closing out the game with a 7-0 run, capped by two Torres free throws with eight seconds left to give UNH the win.

Torres’ jumper in the paint made it 57-53 with 1:26 to play and Kane’s 3-pointer lifted the ‘Cats within 57-56 with 50 seconds on the clock.

Maine called time out with 30 seconds remaining, but Blanca Millan missed a 3-pointer. Torres pulled down the defensive board and was fouled immediately with 8 seconds to play. Torres hit both foul shots to put the Wildcats back in front, 58-57.

“(Torres) gets a big rebound for us and ends up getting fouled,” UNH coach Kelsey Hogan said. “For me, that’s who you want to go to the line, especially to ice the game, a senior. She’s been playing like a senior. I’ve told you we go as she goes. She had a great game today, and I’m really happy with her effort. Nobody better we want on the line to give us that lead.”

“My free throws throughout the game were kind of on and off,” Torres said. “I think for me, it’s kind of just clear my head, and not think about it. Because when I do think about it, I just stress myself out. So that was just me, not thinking about anything else, and shooting them like they were any other free throws.”

Maine called another timeout and advanced the ball into the frontcourt. UNH knocked the ball loose but the Black Bears retained possession on a jump ball with 1.3 seconds left, at which point Maine called its last timeout.

Paige Cote (Sanford, Maine), subbed into the game by UNH to deny the inbounds pass, did exactly that as the swatted the inbounds pass down to the court and corralled to ball to secure the victory.

Torres made 8 of 11 free throws and 5 of 11 field goals (with one 3-pointer) for her 19 points, which is one less than her career high. She also had a team-high five assists. Fellow Wildcat Brooke Kane finished with 12 points and seven rebounds. UNH’s Ivy Gogolin almost recorded a double-double with nine points and team-high 11 rebounds.

The two teams will wrap up the two-game series today at 1 p.m. at Lundholm.

“With our youth, we could have shut down,” Hogan, a Nashua native, said. “But they continued to just stay confident. … They bought in, it was an all-in effort. I’m very proud of them.”

(Telegraph staff writer Tom King contributed to this report).

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