By Jessica Man

The Northeastern women’s basketball team snapped a five-game losing streak against the University of Vermont Catamounts, 75-59, Saturday at Solomon Court.

This brings NU out of its winning drought, but the Huskies are 8-11 overall and 3-7 in the America East Conference for an eighth-place standing.

“I take a breath now because we’ve had too many losses,” said freshman guard Lucia Pablos. “Some were really close, but I feel really good now.”

The Huskies opened the first half strong with tight defense and held the Catamounts to 26 points to their 37. The Huskies were a defensive threat to the end, finishing with seven steals and 22 turnovers.

“We got after them defensively. Our goal was to have them score under 60 points and we did it,” said junior forward Erica Sheppard, who has been filling in for junior forward Michelle Decerbo. Decerbo was injured in the game against the University of New Hampshire and is expected to be out for three to four weeks.

Junior guard Marlene Zwarich helped Northeastern start off fast with a jumper at 18:28 that put her on a list of only 12 Lady Huskies to reach 1,000 career points. She finished the game with 23 points, 14 rebounds, three steals and four assists.

The Catamounts were still scoreless in the half until UVM sophomore guard Brittany Cross took a risk with a three-point shot at 15:58 and it flew through the net, putting UVM on the scoreboard, 7-3.

The Huskies kept on shoving made shots down the Catamounts’ throats increasing NU’s lead to as much as 15 at 4:34 in the first half, 29-14. The Huskies had a 41.4 field goal percentage against UVM’s 38.5 field goal percentage. The score going into half time was 37-26, NU.

Sheppard wasted no time in making her mark on the game when she scored the second half’s first four points, upping NU’s lead to 41-26. She finished with 12 points, four rebounds and one steal.

“After I got the one lay-up, I was on fire. I had the momentum and I wanted my teammates to keep giving me the ball,” Sheppard said.

UVM began the second half like it did in the first, scoreless, not making a shot until 17:02 when Cross made a layup. The Catamounts were 10-of-27 from the floor compared to NU’s 15-of-33 in the half.

NU kept on enforcing its lead with each shot and had its biggest lead of the night with 28 points at 2:40 in the second half. The Catamounts tried with a 16-4 run, but was unsuccessful ending the game at 75-59.

Freshman guard Shaleyse Smallwood had 15 points, three rebounds and three assists while senior forward Francesca Vanin had 10 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.

The Huskies hit the road to take on the University of Hartford Wednesday at 7 p.m.