UNE storms into NCAAâ€™s

BIDDEFORD — Refuse to lose.

The pre-game t-shirts said it all for the UNE women’s basektball team, and on Saturday afternoon it wasn’t some run of the mill cliche. It was put into practice.

So much so, in fact, that the Nor’easters didn’t allow Regis College one lead in The Commonwealth Coast Conference championship game inside the Campus Center Gym.

Not once.

UNE defeated Regis 75-62, and captured its first TCCC title since 2001.

With the win, the Nor’easters move on to the NCAA Division III tournament, and will find out today at 12:30 p.m. on NCAA.com who its first round opponent will be.

“It feels satisfying,” UNE head coach Anhony Ewing said. “I think everybody worked really hard for it. It wasn’t something that kind of just came out of nowhere. We worked towards it last year, we took steps last year really, before this, as far as learning how to win, win close games and believe that we’re good enough to do it. And this year just validated it and now we’ve taken that final step to doing it, and I think the kids certainly aren’t done. They know the journey doesn’t end with this, and we’re real excited about moving forward.”

While the tournament will be a first for the players, it is no foreign territory for Ewing, who took two trips to the NCAA’s in 2005 and 2006 as an associate head coach for Brandeis University.

“I’ve been through the process, so at least that much I know what to expect,” Ewing said. “I’ve been through it. We won a couple of first round games while I was there, so the whole weekend, the whole back to back thing and how tapes work and the practice time and how strict they are with the court time. We won’t go in blind there. But as far as being a head coach and with the team, it will be uncharted territory. We don’t have any fear, these girls don’t have any. We’ve played teams that will be in this tournament tough and we’ve beaten teams that will be in this tournament already, so fear won’t be a factor.”

On Saturday, the combination of guard Kelley Paradis and forward Margo Russell was too much for Regis to handle.

Paradis took the first shot at the Pride, nailing a three-pointer from the left corner seconds into the game. It wouldn’t be her last, as she hit two more three-pointers and accounted for a team-high 19 points.

Russell did most of her work underneath the boards throughout the game, earning a double-double with a 16 point, 17 rebound performance for the Nor’easters.

“The last time we played against them we didn’t rebound very well,” Russell said. “We knew that we had to box out and get rebounds. It was one of my main points to this game, to get rebounds.”

Chelsey Meszaros also hit double-digits with 10 points.

UNE took it to Regis early and often in the first half, grabbing an early 21-8 lead. The Pride fought back, however, thanks to the play of guard Meagan Tobin and forward Sarah McNult. Regis came back to within three of UNE, making it a 28-25 contest on the Nor’easters with five minutes left to play in the half.

“They had a lot of good players, we knew we needed to stop them,” Paradis said.

It would be the closest the Pride would come to victory.

UNE regained its commanding lead by the end of the half, going into the locker room with a 41-29 lead.

The Nor’easters continued its dominance in the second half. Paradis and Russell continued to get their points, while also getting some help from off of the bench. Liz LeBlanc chipped in with two three-pointers off the bench, while Beth Suggs addded five points.

Play between both teams became more physical in the second half, as the intensity increased from both teams.

“When you’re playing for such a high stake, you expect that,” Russell said.

Regis never came close to threatening UNE, who went 11-12 in free throws down the stretch to ice the game.

After accepting the TCCC championship trophy, the players cut down the nets at each end of the gym. Forward Katie Diggins, the team’s only senior, who missed all of last season due to injury, was the last one to cut down the net, and swung it wildly in celebration.

Russell said Diggins, the team captain, had a lot to do with UNE’s success this season.

“She’s a great leader,” Russell said. “Whenever we were down, she was always bringing us up. This conference championship is a lot thanks to her, because she has always been the number one person we look to on the team. She’s a great leader.”