By Sarah Moomaw, News Staff
The women’s basketball team’s season came to an end after a 70-60 loss to George Mason University in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Virginia 529 College Savings Plan Women’s Basketball Championship at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md., Thursday night.
“I definitely thought we put up a great effort tonight trying to get a win in the first round, I’m really proud of my kids,” head coach Daynia LaForce-Mann said. “They really believed and stayed resilient all year and really had the confidence that they could come here and really bring home a championship … it’s hard to keep your kids believing and keep them positive through a season like we had.”
Junior forward Christine Huber’s career-high 25 points weren’t enough to lift the Huskies into the quarterfinals. Northeastern ended the season with an 8-22 record, playing in the CAA tournament as the 10th seed.
Huber started the scoring with a quick jump shot 18 seconds into the game, leading to a 7-0 Huskies run. GMU answered with an eight-point run, taking the lead with 16:29 left in the first half.
After three ties in the half, a jump shot by red-shirted senior guard Taleia Moton led the Patriots into the locker room with a one-point lead 32-31 at half time.
The second half opened with George Mason putting a quick five points up in the first 2:35 of play.
Huber subbed in shortly after and began knocking down buckets, with 19 points in the second half. A layup and three foul shots tied the game 37-37 with 16:30 left in regulation.
With 3:36 to play, the Patriots pushed their lead to six, 63-57, for the first point differential greater than five since Northeastern’s 7-0 start. A three-pointer and a layup by junior Amber Easter pushed it to 11 just over a minute later. Junior guard Deanna Kerhof hit a three-pointer reducing the deficit to eight, but red-shirted sophomore forward Janaa Pickard’s layup at 19:09 set the final at 70-60.
“We were just trading baskets at that point, we could really get a stop defensively,” LaForce-Mann said.
The Huskies hit just six of 21 three-pointers (28.6 percent), while sinking 10-14 free throws (71.4 percent). The Patriots went six-for-17 from beyond the arc and a perfect 18-18 from the foul line.
“Our legs weren’t there late in the second half and that’s been a problem for us all year,” LaForce-Mann said.
The Patriots held Kerkhof off the high scorers list. Kerkhof was the leading scorer in 13 games this season, racking up 385 points. She averaged 14.8 points per game. Sophomore guard Jewel Tunstull had 15 points and led the Huskies with 10 rebounds. Huber had six boards on the evening.
