BANGOR — The University of Maine women’s basketball team impressively derailed the streaking University of Hartford Hawks on Monday as freshman forward Blanca Millan scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed five rebounds to lead the Black Bears to a 73-62 America East win at the Cross Insurance Center.

Sophomore guard Tanesha Sutton provided 12 points and also had nine rebounds and six assists, both game-highs, while freshman forward Laia Sole contributed 10 points and four rebounds as UMaine improved to 10-10 overall, 3-2 in America East.

Hartford had its five-game winning streak snapped and fell to 12-5 and 3-1, respectively. Hartford lost on the road for just the second time in nine games.

The Black Bears outrebounded their guests 45-24, had 16 fast-break points to Hartford’s four and received 22 points from their bench players compared to Hartford’s five.

Naira Caceres, Sigi Koizar, Julie Brosseau and Anita Kelava had six points apiece for Maine. Caceres also had seven rebounds and three assists while Koizar had five rebounds and two steals. Brosseau handed out five assists while Fanny Wadling chipped in with five assists, four rebounds and three blocked shots to go with four points.

Speedy Sierra DaCosta tallied 19 points and had three steals for the Hawks, and Deanna Mayza and Lindsey Abed had 12 points and two assists apiece. Alyssa Reaves had eight rebounds, three assists and three steals along with four points.

In addition to her offensive output, Millan held all-conference guard Mayza four points below her average on a 4-for-13 shooting performance.

“Blanca did an outstanding job against her,” said UMaine associate head coach Amy Vachon, who is filling in while head coach Richard Barron remains on medical leave.

Millan said she fed off the energy of her teammates.

“Everyone was having fun and I started having fun, too,” she said. “The second half was so good. You shoot and you say, ‘OK, this is going in.’”

Millan wound up 9-for-12 from the floor and 2-for-5 behind the 3-point line.

UMaine shot 50.9 percent (28-for-55) from the floor compared to Hartford’s 35 percent (21-for-60).

UMaine built an 11-point lead in the third quarter but Hartford cut it to six before Caceres sank a free throw and Millan stole the ball at halfcourt and laid it in with six seconds left to give UMaine a 56-47 cushion after three.

Millan’s layup off a Sutton feed and a Koizar 3-pointer with 6:40 remaining in the contest made it 63-49 and Harford couldn’t get any closer than 11 the rest of the way.

The Hawks’ full-court trap, which had forced an average of 27.7 turnovers per game, wasn’t as effective against the Black Bears. Although UMaine did have 13 first-half turnovers, they committed just six in the second half.

“We focused on keeping the ball in the middle because if you went to the side, they’d trap you every time,” said Sutton. “And we were aggressive. We attacked them. A couple of times, we hit Laia under the basket. She was all by herself. That was good.”

“Maine definitely outworked us,” said Hartford first-year coach Kim McNeill. “They got up in our faces on defense and they did a really good job getting the ball into the high post which opened up their shooters. They shot the ball well and did a good job breaking our press.

“At the end of the day, they were tougher than we were,” added McNeill.

“I was really pleased with the effort,” said Vachon. “Hartford is a very good team. I was really happy with how we rebounded the ball and the way we competed.”

The Black Bears scored the game’s first six points to take a lead they would never relinquish. They led 18-11 after the first quarter before expanding it to 22-12 in the second quarter.

But Hartford closed out the half on a 13-7 run to pull within 29-25.

UMaine visits the University of New Hampshire (14-3, 4-0) at 7 p.m. Thursday.

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