Box Score BIDDEFORD, Maine--The Western New England University women's basketball team saw its 2015 Commonwealth Coast Conference championship run end on Thursday evening with a tough 81-56 semifinal loss at the hands of top-seeded and defending champion University of New England at the Harold Alfond Forum. The No. 4 seed Golden Bears (17-10 overall) are having their best season in nine years since the 2005-06 squad went 20-7, and are hopeful for an Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III New England tournament invitation when the field is announced on Monday.

All-conference standouts freshman Dorothy O'Neill and junior Chelsea Vujs led Western New England with 16 and 12 points, respectively, while the latter had a game-best nine rebounds. Sophomore Sammie Olson chipped in eight points and four rebounds.

The host Nor'easters, who shot 54.5 percent from the field and 55.0 percent from the three-point arc, were led by junior Alanna Vose with a game-high 27 points--24 of those coming in the first half when she made 9-of-10 field goals, including 6-of-7 from the three-point line. Senior Kelly Coleman added 16 points and junior Lauren Hayden, 15, to go with seven rebounds. Junior Meghan Gribbin dished out nine assists to move into fifth place all-time (337) at UNE.

Western New England traded baskets with UNE in the early going as O'Neill canned a trey to tie it 3-3 and Vujs made a layup to make it 5-5. Coleman converted a layup to put UNE up 7-5 before rattling off 15 unanswered points--eight from Vose--to gain a 17-point lead. From 22-11, only another long-range shot by O'Neill prevented a 17-0 Big Blue spurt as the advantage swelled to 25 at 39-14 with 4 minutes and 33 seconds to go in the first half.

The Nor'easters made 20-of-29 shots for a .690 field goal percentage during the initial frame, and 8-of-10 from deep, to grow the spread to 51-22 at the intermission. The gap never dipped below 22 in the second half for UNE, which improves to 22-5.

The Nor'easters also held a 36-23 margin on the glass while limiting WNE to 37.0 percent from the field (20-54).

UNE will make its fifth conference championship game appearance in six seasons and look for a third consecutive league crown on Saturday (2 p.m.) when No. 3 Curry College--a 66-49 winner over No. 7 Endicott in tonight's other semifinal matchup--comes into town.

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(Editor's note: UNE Athletics contributed to this game recap.)