By Owen Pence, news correspondent
The Northeastern women’s basketball team (4-24) concluded its arduous regular season on Wednesday night, dropping the last game of a difficult three-game stretch against Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) rival Drexel University (20-9).
NU, which finished last in the conference standings after dropping its final 13 contests of the regular season, now prepares for the CAA tournament in Upper Marlboro, Md. The No. 10 seeded Huskies will open the single elimination tournament on Thursday, March 12 at 2:30 p.m. against seventh seeded University of Delaware (13-16).
NU began the aforementioned three-game stretch on Friday night in Baltimore, losing 82-47 to the James Madison University (JMU) Dukes (26-3).
Head Coach Kelly Cole entered the game hoping to glean any positives she could while preparing to face the CAA’s most dangerous opponent.
“At this point, it’s not about wins and losses,” Cole said. “It’s about getting better. It’s about doing everything we possibly can to put us in a position where we want to be for the next step.”
That next step proved to be difficult for Cole’s squad against a JMU team that defeated Northeastern 77-55 in early January. JMU’s dynamic 3-point shooting was on display once again against the Huskies, as the Dukes accrued eight buckets from behind the arc to go along with an impressive shooting percentage of 50 percent on the evening.
As has been the case all season, NU was victimized by turnovers both early and late, coughing up the ball 22 times for 29 JMU points. Leading the charge for the Dukes were junior guards Precious Hall and Jazmon Gwathmey, both of whom finished the game with 18 points and two steals.
Despite the drubbing, junior forward Samantha DeFreese managed 18 points on seven-of-14 shooting, bringing her season total of games in double-figure points to 20.
Sunday afternoon’s result wasn’t much friendlier for the Huskies, losing in Virginia to the College of William & Mary (15-14) 62-47. The Huskies fell behind early and were never able to recover, entering intermission down by a dozen after ceding 32 first-half points to William & Mary.
NU was hoping to atone for the heartbreaking loss William & Mary handed them on Feb. 1 in a 72-66 double-overtime thriller, but despite multiple offensive surges by NU to try and stay competitive, the Tribe never let the Huskies get close enough, handing NU its second-straight double-digit loss.
However, the game didn’t come without some bright spots for NU. This time, it was senior guard A’lece Mark who got hot for the Huskies, scoring 17 points on 50 percent shooting against the stout Tribe defense, part of a 25-point effort from the Husky bench.
The regular season concludedin Boston on Wednesday night as NU fell to the Drexel Dragons 58-42 in front of a packed house on Senior Night at the Cabot Center.
The Huskies struggled to find quality looks against Drexel’s effective zone defense, shooting a paltry 28.9 percent from the field and only managing to hit five 3-pointers on 15 attempts.
“Even in their zone, they were aggressive,” Cole said. “They were out on our three point shooters, where they usually tend to pack it in (the paint) a little more. That was probably the difference.”
NU’s offensive struggles, compounded with a red-hot3-point shooting performance from the Dragons, made it difficult for the Huskies to stay competitive after the first few minutes of play. Drexel managed to connect on nine 3-pointers, helping mask its meager 17-47 overall shooting performance on the night.
“I think we did some really good things defensively,” Cole said. “They’re an extremely difficult team to defend because they’re all shooters and they’re all scorers. They run a lot of motion which created some mismatches, but overall, I thought our team really did a fantastic job defensively tonight.”
The Huskies rode a surge from senior guard Tanisha Hopewell and Mark late in the second half, as their back-to-back 3-point plays helped NU cut the Drexel lead to three. That was as close as they’d come, however, with a late foul shooting barrage from the Dragons clinching their 20th victory of the season.
The Huskies now have a week to prepare before the first round of the CAA tournament in Maryland next Thursday.
“We’ve talked all year long about baby steps,” Cole said regarding the teams lack of wins heading into tournament play. “We’re building the foundation, we’re working on fundamentals. Our overall ability to work together as a team is something we’re really excited about moving forward. It’ll come.”
Photo by Brian Bae
