By Jessica Man
After losing their leading scorer to injury, the Northeastern women’s basketball team bowed out of the 2005 Friendship Cottage Cheese America East Women’s Basketball tournament with a 47-43 loss to the University of Hartford at the Chase Family Arena Thursday.
Junior guard Maralene Zwarich had previously injured her knee in the first half of NU’s opening game of the tournament against the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. She aggravated the knee again when she came off the bench in the beginning of the second half of the Hartford meeting. Zwarich left the game indefinitely, and only appeared for a total of 12 minutes.
After exchanging leads for most of the first half and eventually heading into the locker room with a 24-20 advantage, the Huskies tried to keep it close in the second half despite the loss of Zwarich. The largest deficit NU faced throughout the contest was four points and the game was tied four times in the second half.
“It was difficult in which it ended. We didn’t have our leading scorer for most of the game,” said coach Willette White.
With 3:21 left in the second half, senior forward Francesca Vanin tied the game with a layup, 40-40. Vanin had 14 points and seven boards. On the next possession, however, junior guard Erika Messam answered with a layup to send the Hawks into the last minute of the game clinging to a two-point lead.
With 44 seconds to play, a ray of hope shone in the Huskies’ favor as freshman guard Shalyese Smallwood (10 points, six rebounds) was fouled by Hartford guard Ikea Witt. Smallwood went to the line, but was only able to connect on one free throw, leaving NU down by one, 44-43.
Smallwood then fouled junior Jenna Gale to stop the clock. Gale too only converted one freebie, so Hartford held just a 45-43 lead.
Smallwood went up for a layup with three seconds remaining on the clock, but the ball clanked out — officially ending Northeastern’s season.
“We had a chance to tie, but we had to foul. There was about 20 seconds left on the clock. It was well executed and we got a look, but it was a missed shot,” White said.
Although this was a loss for the Huskies, there were some positives to look upon, White said.
“We did a good job rebounding. We also defended pretty well,” she said, referring to her team out-rebounding the Hawks, 47-27, with 31 of those boards coming on the defensive end. However, she spoke less highly of how the Huskies handled the ball after they had recovered possession, coughing up 20 turnovers and five steals.
“We didn’t take care of the ball,” she said.
White said although the season ended on a somewhat disappointing note, she is looking forward to the promise of next year for her injury-depleted team.
“This was a season with injuries. We had starters out (sophomore guard Jody Burrows, junior forward Michelle Decerbo, and Zwarich) at different points,” she said. “We are not satisfied with our record. We have a lot to build on [for next season].”
