The University of Maine women’s basketball team will face Boston College in the first round of the WNIT at 7 p.m. Thursday.

The Black Bears earned a bid in the tournament by winning the America East regular season title. Maine (20-11) won 14 straight games before losing to Albany 56-47 in the America East tournament championship game on Friday.

Boston College, which will host the game on Thursday at Conte Forum, is 19-11 and lost to No. 9 Florida State in the second round of the ACC tournament.

The two programs have played each other 11 times, but not since Dec. 28, 2017 when Maine won 61-40 in Boston.

Maine has played in the WNIT five times, the last in 2016. The Black Bears are 1-6 all-time in the tournament.

AP POLL: South Carolina finished the season where it started: at No. 1 in The Associated Press poll.

The Gamecocks were the top choice all season long and became the first team since UConn in the 2017-18 season to be No. 1 from start to finish. It’s the second time in the past three seasons that South Carolina ended the season atop the poll. (UConn finished at No. 1 last season.)

South Carolina, which is the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament that begins this week, received 20 first-place votes from the 30-member national media panel Monday.

Stanford was second in the poll, receiving nine first-place votes, with North Carolina State, Louisville and UConn rounding out the top five. It’s the 16th consecutive season that the Huskies have finished in the top five in the final poll.

MEN’S LACROSSE

BOWDOIN 15, HAMILTON 14: Donal Mullane had five goals, Will Byrne added four and Jason Lach finished with three as the Polar Bears (3-0, 2-0 NESCAC) held off the Continentals (1-1, 0-1) in Clinton, New York.

The Polar Bears led 13-7 early in the third quarter before Hamilton rallied for four straight goals. Byrne scored with 7:13 remaining in the game followed by Liam Ford at 3:18 for a 15-11 lead. Hamilton rallied again with three goals in the final 74 seconds.

SOFTBALL

WISCONSIN LUTHERAN 8, U. OF NEW ENGLAND 4: The Warriors (4-1) scored two runs in each of the first three innings and went on to defeat the Nor’easters (0-3) in Clermont, Florida.

Abby Walsh had two hits, Grace Tutt hit an RBI single in the first and the Nor’easters scored their other two runs on a groundout and a wild pitch in the fifth inning.

SUNY GENESEO 12, U. OF NEW ENGLAND 4: The Knights (4-1) scored nine runs over the final three innings and defeated the Nor’easters (0-4) in Clermont, Florida.

UNE scored three in the first inning on a two-run double by Grace Tutt, who later scored on a throwing error for a 3-1 lead. The Nor’easters went ahead 4-3 on a groundout in the fourth before the Knights scored three in the fifth, one in the sixth and five in the seventh to put the game out of reach.

Taylor Depot hit a double and a triple, and Abby Walsh also had two hits for UNE.

BASEBALL

STETSON 9, MAINE 3: Jakob Bullard had two hits with three RBI and two runs scored as the Hatters (11-5) downed the Black Bears (3-10) in Deland, Florida.

Bullard hit a two-run triple and scored on a fielder’s choice during a three-run second inning. He also hit an RBI single, and stole second and home during a five-run fifth.

Maine’s Jeremiah Jenkins hit a two-run triple and scored on a single by Quinn McDainiel in the third to tie it at 3. Jenkins, McDaniel and Jeff Mejia each finished with two hits.

WEBSTER 13, SOUTHERN MAINE 2: A.J. Smith went 3 for 4 with a homer and four RBI to lead the Gorloks (7-2) over the Huskies (2-4) at Auburndale, Florida.

Evan Evola also went 3 for 4 for Webster, which pulled away with a six-run second inning.

Arlo Pike had two hits and an RBI for the Huskies.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

AP POLL: Gonzaga will head into the NCAA tournament exactly where it ended up in the final AP Top 25: right on top.

In fact, that’s where the Bulldogs began the season, too.

The Bulldogs wound up with 54 of the 61 first-place votes from a national media panel after romping through the West Coast Conference tournament to land at No. 1 in the final AP Top 25 for the second straight year.

Now, it’s a matter of finishing things off. The Bulldogs, who earned the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year, lost to Baylor in last year’s national championship game.

The top four teams in the final AP Top 25 landed on the top four seed lines of the NCAA tournament.

Arizona, which got the other seven first-place votes to finish second, will open against the play-in winner between Wright State and Bryant in the South Region. The Wildcats were followed by at No. 3 by Kansas, the top team in the Midwest, and Big 12 rival Baylor, which landed on the top seed line in the East Region.
The Jayhawks play the Texas Southern-Texas A&M Corpus Christi winner while the Bears open against Norfolk State.

SOUTH CAROLINA: South Carolina fired Coach Frank Martin after 10 seasons with just one appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Martin completed his 10th season with an opening game loss to Mississippi State in the Southeastern Conference tournament. The Gamecocks finished the year at 18-13, the seventh .500 or better season in the past eight for Martin’s clubs.

Martin had the third-longest men’s basketball coaching tenure in South Carolina history with only Frank McGuire’s 16 seasons (1964-80) and Frank Johnson’s 14 seasons (1940-43, 1946-58) in the position longer.

GEORGE WASHINGTON: Jamion Christian was fired as men’s basketball coach after wrapping up a third consecutive losing season.

GW went 12-18 during 2021-22, including a 99-88 loss to UMass last week in the Colonials’ first game at the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament.

Christian’s overall record was 29-50 during his three years, going 1-3 in the conference tourney, and the decision to let him go “was based on our performance on the court,” GW Athletic Director Tanya Vogel said in a statement.