RUTLAND, Vt. — Teira Durgin, Danielle McCusker and Karlee Biskup each scored 11 points as Central Maine Community College dropped the College of St. Joseph, 56-34, in a women’s basketball game Friday night.

The Mustangs (2-1) jumped out to a 28-11 at halftime. CMCC made six 3-pointers for the evening.

For St. Joseph (1-2), Kelly Festa scored the game-high 20 points.

Central Connecticut 53, Maine 48

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — The University of Maine fought back from being 11 points down and cut the Central Connecticut State lead to just two, but time ran out as Blue Devils beat the Black Bears, 53-48, in a women’s basketball opener Friday night.

Ashleigh Roberts paced the Maine attack with 16 points and six rebounds, while Brittany Williams chipped in a nine-point effort to go along with a career-high eight rebounds.

The teams would trade baskets and possessions for the remainder of the first half while the Blue Devils built a 27-18 lead on a foul shot and a bucket by Jaclyn Babe.

Maine would storm out of the gates in the opening minutes of the second half, powered by the offense of Roberts. She hit an early bucket before racing down the court and drew a foul on a layup, cutting the Blue Devil lead to five, 27-22. The Blue Devils staged a quick 4-0 run to regain a nine point advantage before Courtney Anderson answered hit a left-handed runner in the lane for Maine. Roberts and Shareka Maner would also drop in jumpers for Maine as the Black Bears would trail by just four, 33-29 with 11:45 to play in the second half.

Men’s basketball

College of St. Joseph 102, CMCC 74

RUTLAND, Vt. — Ramel Anderson poured in 26 points and hit six 3-pointers and teammate Rahiem Smallf added another 23 as the College of St. Joseph (4-0) glided to a 102-74 victory over Central Maine Community College (5-2)  in a men’s basketball game Friday.

St. Joseph held a 50-17 lead at halftime before erupted with another 52 points in the second half.

James Rajda scored 15 points and Dane Joest dropped in another 13 points for St. Joseph.

For the Mustangs, Curtis Miller scored the team-high 19 points and made five 3-pointers, and teammate Michael Green hit for 13.

Hockey

UMass-Lowell 5, Maine 3

ORONO — Maine’s Joey Diamond and UMass-Lowell’s Matt Ferreira each scored a pair of goals as River Hawks skated to a 5-3 victory over the Black Bears in a hockey game at Alfond Arena.

Stu Higgins tallied his first collegiate goal for the Black Bears.

Maine falls to 3-5-1 on the season and 3-4-0 in Hockey East play. UMass Lowell improves to 4-3-0 overall, 2-2-0 in conference play.

The River Hawks jumped on the board first just 2:26 into the first period on a goal by Josh Holmstrom. Both Scott Wilson and Stephen Buco assisted on the play.   

The Black Bears answered with a goal of their own just over three minutes later by Stu Higgins. Ryan Hegarty fed Higgins, who eluded his defender and skated in alone on River Hawks goalie Doug Carr. The goal was the first of Higgins’ career.

UMass Lowell answered back three minutes later with a short-handed goal. With Lowell trying to clear the puck while short-handed, Maine goalie Martin Ouellette  came out to play it. The puck deflected to Matt Ferreira who shot it into the empty net.

The River Hawks made it 3-1 with a power play goal just over two minutes later. Derek Arnold and David Vallorani teamed up to find Riley Wetmore, who had his shot from the left of Ouellette find the back of the net.