BIDDEFORD — For the fourth time in five years, the University of New England women’s basketball team is going dancing.

The top-seeded Nor’easters ran up a big early lead and kept it on Saturday, beating second-seeded Roger Williams 61-50 to win their second-straight Commonwealth Coast Conference championship game in front of a record crowd of 742 at Harold Alfond Forum.

It was the third CCC crown in the last five seasons for coach Anthony Ewing’s squad, which also won its school-record 26th game. The Nor’easters earned an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III national tournament with the win; they’ll learn their first-round opponent Monday afternoon.

Roger Williams (22-6) had handed UNE its only league defeat in the past two seasons when the teams met in Rhode Island on Jan. 18, as the Nor’easters allowed a season-high 80 points in a 21-point loss.

UNE (26-2) won the rematch 65-50 on Feb. 22, and dominated the rubber match seven days later, racing out to a 37-19 halftime advantage and leading wire to wire.

“We’re very familiar with them, and we didn’t play them very well down there defensively; that was a big failure,” Ewing said. “So we paid extra attention in the film room and on the scout to what they do. You just can’t let them run their stuff clean because they’ll tear you up with it.”

Junior Kelly Coleman led the way for the Nor’easters, dominating inside with a variety of low post moves to score a game-high 18 points, including six straight as UNE shot out to a 10-0 lead.

“We tried to push the ball a lot because we all play better at a faster pace,” Coleman said. “So we tried to push it, especially when they were setting up in zone. We wanted a faster-paced game.”

After missing its first 11 shots, Roger Williams got back-to-back baskets from Amanda Keane to pull within 10-4, but Lauren Hayden hit a 3-pointer to put the Nor’easters back up nine.

The Hawks didn’t get any closer until there was less than a minute to play as UNE’s 1-3-1 defense was tenacious for the entirety of the first half, forcing nine turnovers, blocking five shots and holding the Hawks to 21.9 percent shooting during the opening 20 minutes.

“I thought we did a good job with their sets, and our 1-3-1 zone was effective,” Ewing said. “We started with that, and when we’re doing it well, it keeps you off balance and its tough to get a rhythm going.”

“Our biggest goal this year is defense,” added Hayden, the conference defensive player of the year who had three steals Saturday. “We know that’s how we’re going to win games, because sometimes your shots don’t fall.”

But the Nor’easters’ shots were falling, especially from beyond the arc, where UNE was 4-7 in the first half. Two of those 3s came from Alanna Vose, who scored eight first-half points off the bench as the Nor’easters built on their lead.

“My role is to come off the bench and keep the run going,” Vose said. “I was just really confident with the ball and knew it was going in.”

UNE continued to stay in control in the second half, taking a 53-34 lead on a Coleman layup with 7:42 to play. But those were the Nor’easters’ last points for nearly six minutes, allowing Roger Williams to chisel the lead down to 53-44 with two minutes left.

“That was our whole goal, not to do that,” Ewing said. “It’s just human nature I guess, to play a little bit differently when you have a lead like that. But I knew they weren’t going to go away, because they have tough seniors and they wanted this really bad.”

But Roger Williams eventually ran out of time and was forced to foul, and UNE point guard Meghan Gribbin hit 8-10 free throws in the last 91 seconds to seal the win.

“We fell asleep for a little bit,” Gribbin said. “We were stuck on 53 for six minutes or something like that. But I was never concerned; a little nervous, yeah. It felt like an eternity.”

Angelica Ariola led Roger Williams with 12 points, while Keane chipped in 11. Kaitlyn Bovee, the Hawks’ conference player of the year, was dealing with a hurt ankle suffered in the Feb. 22 game and was held to eight points, including just two in the first half.

“I’m not sure she had her legs 100 percent, and she’s usually a step quicker,” Ewing said. “I don’t know if that had a play in it or not, but our main goal in (our) man-to-man sets was to find Kaitlyn Bovee and make it tough for her.”

In addition to Coleman’s 20 points and nine rebounds, Vose added 11 points while Gribbin had 10 points and four assists for UNE. Center Alicia Brown also had nine points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots, while Sadie DiPierro scored seven.

UNE now awaits its NCAA selection. Ranked 20th in the latest USA Today Division III national poll, Ewing said he’s “cautiously optimistic” about hosting an opening-round game.

And after winning their first-ever NCAA game last year, the Nor’easters are hoping to make a little more noise, and dance a little longer, this March.

“This year we have to do better than that,” Coleman said. “Hopefully we’ll win at least two games and see how far we can make it.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or cdunbar@journaltribune.com.