BIDDEFORD — The University of New England’s women’s basketball team topped visiting Western New England 76-62 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship, winning its fifth straight CCC title on Saturday afternoon.

UNE had a new look entering the 2016-17 season, with major roster turnover as well as the loss of senior playmakers such as Alanna Vose and Meghan Gribbin. After a shaky 6-5 start, the Nor’easters would surge throughout the rest of the season and win 15 straight games entering the postseason, and extended that streak to 17 on Saturday.

“We just doubled our work and got after it. They stuck to the process the whole way and so many of these kids have come such a long way from September,” said Anthony Ewing. “Another coach this week was remarking, ‘your kids don’t play like freshmen,’ and we don’t really treat them like freshman. At this point this in the year they’re had enough experience to step up and play and they did that.”

A key member of UNE this season, especially on Saturday, was freshman Sadie Nelson. Nelson scored 15 points against the Golden Bears, and was happy to help the few remaining seniors reach the NCAA tournament for a final time.

“We know how good (Western New England is) and we came out here and did our thing. Our defense and post players were amazing. We wanted to do it for these seniors, this is good for them, we wanted to do it for them,” said Nelson.

The Nor’easters would jump out to a 20-11 lead in the first quarter and later extended the lead to 14 points. WNE would fire back in the third quarter and managed to cut the UNE lead to just three late in the period. However, the Nor’easters pulled away in the final 12 minutes to secure the win.

Alicia Brown led UNE with 21 points while Sam MacDonald chipped in 18.

“That was something we’ve been talking about all year is finishing quarters, which was not something at the start of the year we were overly strong at,” said Ewing. “We finished each quarter especially the fourth. We talked at halftime about how they’re a great team and they’re going to go on a run … it just can’t be an eight, 10 point run.”

On the flip side, WNE coach Nicole Chaszar was disappointed in her team’s performance late in quarters.

“The end of the first quarter was tough to bounce back from, then the third quarter we were right there but we couldn’t board the ball. That was our opportunity to kind of go over the hump but  couple of those boards and a couple of those penalties kind of sunk us back down,” said Chaszar.

In the end, WNE could not control UNE’s post players and shooters simultaneously. The Nor’easters would pound the ball in the paint, while also coming up with timely shots down the stretch, including a 3-pointer from MacDonald with three minutes remaining to put the game out of reach.

“They cut it to three and I knew that someone was going to half to make a play. Late in a game like this where both teams are prepared it’s going to come down to who can make a play,” said Ewing.

The Nor’easters will travel to Scranton, Pennsylvania to take on Scranton University in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. UNE was bounced by underdog Moravian in the first round last year, and Ewing hopes his club will carry its momentum the rest of the way.

“It’s good momentum — it’s nice to be on a role,” said Ewing. “The regular season is its own season, this three-week stretch is it’s own season. We’re 0-0, whoever we’re playing is not going to care about our win streak or be intimidated by it.”

Nelson was proud to be able to represent UNE during it’s conference title run, and hopes to carry on the program’s winning ways.

“There’s a reason why a lot of us came here, we wanted to continue this legacy,” said Nelson. “I think it’s great that we all got here and wanted to win and that’s why we’re here — we want to win.”

— Associate Sports Editor Alex Sponseller can be reached at asponseller@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.