By: Justin Clear-Vekinis
Mirroring last year’s 7-11 record, the Huskies diminished their hopes for a chance at the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) title with an 85-68 loss to UNC-Wilmington.
The Huskies slid to 2-5 in CAA play, tied with Georgia State University and George Mason University for second-to-last place.
Four Huskies hit double digits in Sunday’s home loss, led by sophomore guard Deanna Kerkhof with 16 points.
But Seahawks center Martha White, who hit for 19 points, proved too much for coach Daynia La-Force Mann and the Huskies.
“We missed a couple of lay-ups early in the game and I think that took away our focus,” La-Force Mann said. “Defensively, we tried to do different things, but they were just really hot from the field.”
Junior guards Kashaia Cannon and Jamie Conroy scored 14 and 12 points, respectively, and sophomore forward Rachael Pecota added 13 points and tied for a team-high of five rebounds.
The Seahawks sit atop the CAA with a 6-1 record and are 14-4 on the season.
The 85 points UNCW put up were a season high, as the team extended its five-game CAA winning streak.
Within six minutes, the score was 21-8 in favor of the visitors. The Seahawks continued unanswered runs of 6-0 and 5-0 to help take a 50-25lead into the half.
“The team has to be consistent – that’s what it takes to win,” La-Force Mann said. “For us to play as well as we did against Georgia State and then to have come home and not execute as well on the offensive end was very disappointing.”
The second half started with sophomore forward Christine Huber scoring with a jumper, though she later fouled out of the game.
“In order to win, we just need to stay disciplined,” Cannon said. “Something that we lacked in this game [was] coming out from the gate with the intensity needed to win the game and to consistently play well together.”
The Huskies outscored the Seahawks 43-35 in the second half, but it was not enough to erase the miscues in the first half.
Northeastern snaped its previous two-game losing streak, beating Georgia State University 72-48 in Atlanta last Thursday.
Kerkhof posted another 16 points, including four 3-pointers. Sophomore guard Afreyea Tolbert chipped in with 12 points, nine coming from the free throw line.
“This game was very important to us,” La-Force Mann said. “We had to get back to the fundamentals of basketball – back to sharing the ball on offense and defensively boxing out.”
The game also marked the sixth time four players have hit double-digit scoring, with Pecota putting up 11 points and Huber hitting 10.
“Our most effective tactic was being able to spread them out with our spacing on the offensive end,” La-Force Mann said.
Georgia State beat through the Huskies’ offense in the first half, taking a 31-26 lead.
Going into the second half, the Huskies started out strong and tied the game 31-31 before exploding for a 20-8 run to give NU the lead 51-39. They expanded the lead to 65-45, and the Panthers couldn’t reduce the deficit.
Tolbert and the Huskies outrebounded the Panthers 50-32, a season best.
The Huskies are hosting Towson tonight at 7 p.m.
