2017–18 Maine Black Bears women's basketball team
Introduction


The **2017–18 Maine Black Bears women's basketball** team represented the [University of Maine](/wiki/University_of_Maine "University of Maine") [Black Bears](/wiki/Maine_Black_Bears "Maine Black Bears") in the [2017–18 NCAA Division I women's basketball season](/wiki/2017%E2%80%9318_NCAA_Division_I_women%27s_basketball_season "2017–18 NCAA Division I women's basketball season"). The Black Bears, led by seventh year head coach [Richard Barron](/wiki/Richard_Barron_%28basketball%29 "Richard Barron (basketball)") and interim head coach Amy Vachon, play their home games at the [Cross Insurance Center](/wiki/Cross_Insurance_Center "Cross Insurance Center") with 2 games played at [Memorial Gym](/wiki/Memorial_Gymnasium_%28University_of_Maine%29 "Memorial Gymnasium (University of Maine)") and are members of the [America East Conference](/wiki/America_East_Conference "America East Conference"). They finished the season 23–10, 15–1 in America East play to win the America East Regular Season. They also won the [America East women's tournament](/wiki/2018_America_East_women%27s_basketball_tournament "2018 America East women's basketball tournament") and earned an automatic trip to the [NCAA women's tournament](/wiki/2018_NCAA_Division_I_women%27s_basketball_tournament "2018 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament") for the first time since 2004\. They lost to Texas in the first round.


How did the Maine Black Bears women's basketball team qualify for the NCAA women's tournament?