By Sarah Metcalf
After its second five-game losing streak of the season, the Northeastern women’s basketball team ended the regular season on a high note, showing what they are made of by picking up two big wins before the start of the America East tournament. The Huskies landed at the No. 7 seed and will take on No. 10 UMBC tonight at 7 p.m. in the Chase Family Arena.
The Huskies dropped two tough games to Maine and Albany at the beginning of spring break, but then turned up the intensity and picked up two convincing wins against America East competitors New Hampshire and Stony Brook.
NU had the highest number of points scored in a single game this season on Senior Day at Solomon Court, crushing Stony Brook, 92-68, putting their regular season record at 13-14 overall, 7-11 in the America East.
The Huskies had four players in double digits in the win, including sophomore Maralene Zwarich, who scored a game-high 26 points on 11-18 shooting. Sophomore Michelle Decerbo also had a strong showing, scoring 17 points on 7-9 shooting. Seniors Melissa Kowalski and Joi Jefferson also went out in style, scoring 15 points (5 three-pointers), and 13 points with nine assists, respectively. NU led by as many as 28 points in the second half.
“I thought that we were able to get back on track and kind of do some things that we do best,” said coach Willette White. “It’s definitely nice to see. We didn’t really change anything; I just think the kids played at a higher level. We didn’t really implement anything new; we still did the things that make us successful. We just did them better, obviously.”
Northeastern ended its five-game skid on March 2 with an important win over New Hampshire, 74-61, at Solomon Court. The Huskies broke open a close game in the second half, shooting 61.1 percent from the field to finish with a percentage of 47.9. NU also forced 24 turnovers and had 14 steals.
Zwarich led all scoring with 20 points, 12 of those coming in the final 12 minutes of play. Decerbo also had a strong showing with 16 points on 5-9 shooting from the field and 6-6 shooting from the line. Freshman Jody Burrows rounded out the NU double-digit scorers with 13 points on 5-7 shooting.
“It’s better to end on a high note than to drop two,” White said. “We feel good about ourselves going into the conference tournament.”
Before the wins, however, the Huskies continued to struggle, falling to America East leader Maine 66-48, and falling just short of a come-from-behind victory against Albany, 58-56, their fifth loss in a row.
Against Albany, the Huskies put up a terrific fight in the second half, coming back from as much as 12 to bring the score to 56-53 with 40 seconds to play. NU forced to commit two more fouls though, and even though Burrows sank a deep three, with only 0.4 seconds on the clock Northeastern ran out of time. Junior Francesca Vanin led NU with 13 points and nine rebounds, Jefferson had 12 points and eight rebounds and Kowalski had 11 points of her own.
On the Albany side, Alicia Learn scored a game-high 16 points and had nine rebounds. Danielle Hutcheson picked up her ninth double-double of the season with 11 points and a game-high 12 boards, while Becky Ayers contributed 12 points to the win.
At the very beginning of spring break, Maine captured their 31st consecutive America East win against the Huskies, wining easily, 66-48. Burrows and Kowalski led Husky scoring with 10 points each and Zwarich added six points and nine boards.
Melissa Heon led the way for Maine with 14 points, and Monica Peterson finished with 10.
The Huskies now look to use their defensive intensity to shut down the UMBC Retrievers, who have averaged 63 percent shooting in two games against NU this year.
“We’ve got to play at a high level to be successful against [UMBC] we’ve got to defend very well,” White said. “We’ve also got to share the basketball and get some easy looks offensively and knock them down”
White said she has faith her team will advance in the tournament.
“Oh we definitely have a really good chance to advance in the tournament that’s our goal.”
