AUBURN — Down by six and rushing in transition, a three-on-one break was just the kind of thing that could spark things.

Instead, it proved to be an example of the frustration the Central Maine Community College women’s basketball team endured Saturday.

The Mustangs came up empty on that fast break opportunity early in the fourth qurter. Instead, the ball went the other way and so did the game. The College of St. Joseph’s, of Rutland, Vt.,  pulled away down the stretch and finished off a 55-48 win.

“They’re a great team,” CMCC coach Andrew Morong said. “They’re the national runners-up and defending conference champion for a reason. They basically have their whole team back and a DI transfer. You have to execute almost perfectly for 40 minutes to beat a team like that. We didn’t for about 15 minutes and they made us pay.”

The Mustangs opened a lead with 13 straight points in the first half, but CMCC couldn’t produce an offensive spurt like that in the second half. The Mustangs managed just 20 points in the entire second half and went about 12 minutes without a field goal until scoring nine points in the final 1:05.

“You have a team like this coming in and you need to shoot well,” Morong said. “We shot 29 percent from the floor and 48 percent from the foul line. And we still had a shot. If we can get looks and more rhythm going, we have a chance to beat them.”

Arreonte Anderson led St. Joseph’s (4-1) with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Jazsala Laracuente added 17 points while Regina Steele had 10 points and 17 rebounds.  Steele had eight of her points in the second half.

“She’s the (USCAA Division II) National Player of the Year last year and she showed up,” said coach Chris Wood. “She got us huge rebounds when we needed them and made some big plays.”

CMCC (10-3) were led by Frankie Lally with 12 points while Abby Tilton added 10. Alex Rowe had nine points and six rebounds while Jenny Schlim finished with seven points and nine rebounds.

“It came down to executing the little things,” Morong said. “We made mistakes in the second half that we didn’t make in the first half. That was really the difference.”

CMCC was up 28-24 at the half. CSJ finished the first half with a 9-5 run, including four straight points by Anderson, to erase an eight-point lead and get within four.

Then CSJ used runs of 8-2 and 8-0 to take the lead in the third quarter. Laracuente had eight points in the quarter while CMCC was held to just eight points. The Saints picked up the pace of the game while CMCC struggled against the CSJ zone. CSJ also controlled the boards, outrebound CMCC 47-31. That inlcuded 30 defensive rebounds for the Saints.

“We made some adjustments,” Wood said. “We tried to get the ball inside after going away from that. Things worked out. We made shots. With a seasoned team, I’d expect that.”

CMCC was within striking distance in the fourth but the game quickly began to slip away. The Mustangs didn’t hit a field goal until Tilton hit a 3 with 1:05 left. CMCC was alredy down by 14 at that point. 

“They scored in transition and we let them,” said Morong, whose team had 13 of its 20 turnovers in the second half. “In the first half, we didn’t turn the ball over. So they didn’t have those points in transition. In the second half, they didn’t have to execute because they were getting their fast break points.”

CSJ had the lead up to 47-38 after a Steele rebound and Anderson 3. After a Rowe free throw, CSJ got a Mookie Kennedy steal and a Steele rebound that built the lead to 53-39.

“I thought once we made shots it could give us some confidence,” Wood said. “I thought we could get them flustered a little bit getting them up and down. They slowed us down. We’re not comfortable in the halfcourt. We’ve got athletic kids. We want to get out and run.”

Though the Saints were energized in the second half, CMCC slowed the pace of the game down considerably early on. The Mustangs also hit some shots. Tied 8-8 in the first quarter, Schlim, Seve Deery-DeRaps and Lally each hit 3 during a 13-0 run that built an 18-8 lead after the first quarter. CMCC maintained that lead through much of the second quarter but soon the Mustangs offense dried up and the Saints began to build momentum.

“They had us scouted well and I thought they came prepared,” Wood said. “They came out and made shots and we didn’t. I think we got a little bit frustrated with it. They took away our big kid for the most part in the first half.”

kmills@sunjournal.com