By Sarah Metcalf
The Northeastern women’s basketball team picked up a big win by holding off a tough Hartford team, only to dampen their spirits by losing to a struggling University of Maryland-Baltimore County in America East play last week.
Senior Melissa Kowalski provided the highlight of the week, becoming the all-time America East leader in three-point field goals, scoring her 220th three-pointer in the first half of the loss to UMBC. Kowalski finished with 14 points in the loss, including four three-pointers.
Coming off an encouraging win on the road at Vermont, the Huskies took the floor Wednesday night to avenge the tough 60-56 loss they suffered at Hartford (16-6, 7-4 AE) Jan. 14. After being held scoreless for nearly four minutes of play, the Huskies shot 44.4 percent from the field and took a seven-point lead into the break, 34-27.
In the second half, Hartford battled back behind 50 percent team shooting from the field. With 15 seconds left, senior Joi Jefferson swished a free throw to give the Huskies a 61-59 lead. Hartford freshman Ikea Witt drove down the court and took a shot, but it fell short, giving NU its second straight win.
Zwarich led the team in scoring in her second game coming from the bench with 12. Jefferson also had 11, and junior Francesca Vanin picked up eight boards. Kowalski finished with eight, and hit two three-pointers to bring her within two three-point field goals of the record.
“Well it was a really good and big win for us,” said coach Willette White. “We definitely needed it to get back on track.”
The Huskies then traveled to the RAC Arena to take on a struggling UMBC (1-19, 1-10 AE). In the first half NU went on a 10-2 run to take an 18-14 lead with a little under eight minutes to play. NU took a four-point lead into the break, 23-19, behind Kowalski’s record-setting threes.
The Retrievers went on a 15-2 run with about 18 minutes left to grab a 40-30 lead. NU responded quickly, and going on an 11-2 run of their own to take a 46-42 lead with 6:12 to play. Once again, however, UMBC proved that they wanted it more, going on a 16-5 run and holding the Huskies to five points in the final six minutes, leaving the final score at 61-51.
Kowalski led the team in the loss, Jefferson finished with 12 points, and Zwarich rounded out the double-digit scoring with 11 points in just 15 minutes on the floor. UMBC was on fire, shooting 60 percent from the floor, and had four players finish in double-digits. Maria Brown had a game-high 17, Anastasia Goncharova had 13, Shari Rohde had 11, and Tyecia Powell finished with 10.
“I think it was a team that scared me because they really had nothing to lose and have nothing to lose,” White said. “And when you get a team that shoots as well as they do — and we allowed them to — it was going to be a long night. We talked about it all week, how it was going to be a difficult game, and how are you going to react to it? We didn’t do a very good job, and we did not deserve to win that game.”
Although White said she believes her team has overcome their losing streak, they need to pick up the intensity every day.
“We’ve definitely gotten past losing five in a row,” White said. “Right now, we’re working on a daily basis to create a sense of urgency. We have three seniors that really have six games left in their career. It’s like, how do you want this to be?”
