By Irvin Zhang, news staff
Despite coming into the weekend winning four out of their last five games, the Northeastern women’s basketball team was blown out by margins of 29 and 18 to first-place James Madison University and the College of William & Mary, losing 43-72 and 53-71 respectively.
In both road games, the Huskies were unable to execute both offensively and defensively. The Huskies shot 21 and 32.3 percent, while allowing their opponents to shoot 52 and 49.2 percent respectively.
“It was a tough weekend,” head coach Kelly Cole said. “Was our offense good? No. But more than that, we allowed 70-plus points to both teams. As much as our offense matters, we need to get back to our defense and executing on that end of the floor.”
Playing two familiar CAA foes, Cole said both opponents had similar offensive game plans aimed at scoring quick points in the paint.
“We knew that they were both going to attack the basket and try to score in transition,” Cole said. “We weren’t in sync and we didn’t execute. We seemed like we were a step too slow.”
With only five games remaining in the regular season, Cole said she doesn’t believe any changes need to be made on the court.
“I don’t think there any X’s and O’s that we need to change, but we need to figure out why we lost the way we did,” Cole said. “We need to look at ourselves mentally. That’s the biggest thing right now.”
In light of the negatives resulting from the two losses, Cole said there are some shining positives, specifically the production from the younger players.
“Of all the tough things this weekend, I did think we got good minutes out of our younger players,” Cole said. “I think the positive coming out is Jasmin Watson gave us fantastic minutes. Stella Clark is getting back to playing like herself after missing a few games and Jasmine Braswell has stepped up as well. Those three stepped up and made big impacts.”
The Huskies will host Towson University Friday night and third-place Elon University Sunday afternoon at Cabot Center, where they hope to keep themselves above .500 winning percentage in the CAA.
