By Justin Clear-Vekinis, News Correspondent

The women’s basketball team remains winless in its third week, dropping six games in a row to start the 2011 season.

Despite the losses, head coach Daynia LaForce-Mann is confident in her team.

“The strength of the opponents we have faced is preparing us for conference play,” LaForce-Mann said. “It prepares us mentally and athletically, and if we play like we’ve played against these ranked teams – we’ll do well in conference play.”

Co-captain and senior guard Dani Iervolino agreed.

“We have faced some of the toughest defenses in the country in Kentucky and Georgia and have learned how to play through it and pick those defenses apart,” Iervolino said. “Tough games like that are worth being 0-6 right now because they are preparing us for conference and testing us early on.”

The Huskies traveled to Las Vegas Friday for the Lady Rebel Round-Up tournament and took on the University of Las Vegas Lady Rebels for a chance to advance to the final round of the tournament.
The squad was not able to move on to the next round, falling to the hosts 61-58. Three Huskies were in double-digits on the scoreboard, with sophomore forward Jewel Tunstull leading the way with 15 points. Junior forward Christine Huber had a season high 13 points, while senior guard Jamie Conroy notched 11 points and a team-best five assists. The Huskies were on top for the majority of the first half, but let the Lady Rebels go on a 14-2 run to end the half on the bottom, 30-23.

The Huskies managed to bring the lead back to a single point with 3:30 to play and then tied it with three minutes to go.

The squad was unable to score any more points and the Lady Rebels got away with a 61-58 win.

“We had 15 turnovers and lost the game by three,” LaForce-Mann said. “Until we do a better job of taking care of the ball, we won’t win games.”

The Huskies had the advantage on shooting though, at 39 percent in comparison to the Lady Rebels’ 36 percent.

Following the loss to the Lady Rebels, the Huskies found themselves playing No. 10 University of Georgia Bulldogs for third place.

The Huskies led the Bulldogs, for the only time during the game in the first minute of play as junior guard Deanna Kerkhof opened scoring from beyond the arc.
The Bulldogs went on a 12-0 run while holding Northeastern scoreless for almost five minutes.

However, the Huskies outscored the Bulldogs going into the half and brought the deficit to 39-31. The Huskies also recorded 52 percent shooting for the first half.

The team then cut the lead to eight, but the Bulldogs went on a seven point unanswered run and never looked back, finishing out the game 81-61.

“One of the biggest improvements that we can make is being more consistent,” Kerkhof said. “If we can put everything together for a solid 40 minutes we will put ourselves in a great position to compete with any team on our schedule.”

Rebounding was a problem again for Northeastern as they were outrebounded 45-29.

“Boxing out and rebounding definitely needs to improve,” Iervolino said. “I think a lot of times we give up key rebounds at certain points of the game and we need to lock that down and stop teams from gaining the momentum.”

The Huskies’ first game against a ranked opponent was against No. 13 Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. Nov. 17. The Huskies were outplayed 81-47.

“Our freshmen work hard in practice every single day and are respectful and want to learn and get better which makes life a lot easier,” Iervolino said. “They are pretty fearless in the game and are not afraid to make the big play.”

Two freshmen guards, Amencie Mercier and Tanisha Hopewell, put points on the board, but it wasn’t enough to quell the Kentucky Wildcats.

“The beauty of our offense is that there is no star player needed,” LaForce-Mann said. “It’s a shared offense and the freshmen have definitely benefitted from that.”

The Huskies then traveled across town to Boston University to play the Terriers. Northeastern came close to overcoming the Terriers, trailing by only 10 at the half. The team was within six points with 1:19 to go, but the Terriers held on to seal the win, 75-65.

Despite the loss, the Huskies stayed on top with hustle, outrebounding the Terriers 38-36.

The Huskies are at home against the University of Vermont today. Game time is set for 12 p.m. at Solomon Court.

“We’re just continuing to stay hungry for that W,” LaForce-Mann said. “We’re also competing hard in practice and we’ve set the benchmark for our play this past weekend against such tough teams.”