By Charlie Wolfson, news staff

After an encouraging 2-1 start to Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play, the Northeastern women’s basketball team dropped two straight games. A 60-58 loss at the College of William & Mary on Friday and a 74-54 setback at James Madison University (JMU) on Sunday left the Huskies sitting at 6-11 overall with a 2-3 in-conference record.

Against William & Mary, Northeastern lacked something that proved essential for them this season: Secondary scoring. Their recent upward trend was sparked by contributions from players other than their star duo of senior center Francesca Sally and sophomore guard Jess Genco. Against the Tribe, there was not much secondary contribution to be had, aside from junior forward Claudia Ortiz’s 13 points.

Head coach Kelly Cole approached the loss mildly, pointing to some of the areas in which the team found success.

“We moved the ball well,” she said. “We could have used some extra points from some of those other players. We had opportunities to put the ball in the basket—good opportunities. [William & Mary] hit some crazy, crazy shots down the stretch. I think we executed well and did a lot of what we needed to do. We just need to be more consistent and get baskets from more people.”

The Huskies were were 8-19 from three-point range in the game, including four makes from Genco. They struggled to score inside, though, which highlights a problem that often comes up for this team. Cole has often said that she hopes the team can be balanced between inside and outside scoring, but they have struggled to execute both phases simultaneously in most of their games.

“They did a good job inside,” Cole said. “One of the things that we always know is that we need a good balance […] We have to make teams stop us both inside and outside. We’re going to have a lot more success that way.”

Cole said she continues to preach consistency, something she has talked about since an up-and-down win over Boston University in the season opener.

“When you’re playing a lot of young kids, sometimes it’s hard,” she said. “The difference between your good teams and your great teams are the ones that can do it every single time they step on the floor. I think we’re getting closer and closer to that, but it’s something we continue to work on—trying to have that consistency so whenever we step on the floor we can count on 10 points from these two players.”

In the loss to JMU, the Huskies’ success in shooting three pointers was reversed. The team was 3-18 on the day, including a tough 0-8 performance from Genco (Genco finished with six points, shooting 2-14 from the field). Despite Ortiz and Sally scoring 19 and 16 points respectively, Northeastern just could not get going as their point guard struggled.

“I would say at least three of those [Genco’s] threes were at the end of the shot clock,” Cole said. “So I would say she had five looks at the basket. And you’re a little bit rushed because the tempo was up and whatnot. I wouldn’t say she had a bad shooting night, I would say they were putting pressure on our shooters […] and trying to make sure she didn’t get any clean looks at the basket.”

Another factor that contributed to the loss was a lack of scoring from junior forward Maureen Taggart, who had been building momentum throughout the previous few games. She had averaged almost 10 points per game over her last three, but was held scoreless against JMU.

“She’s a great shooter,” Cole said. “She takes a little time to get her shots off, and against a team like JMU that plays that in your face pressure, it was tough to get those perimeter shots off. She played a great game—she had a couple steals, she played great defense—she just didn’t end up on the scoresheet.”

Despite the inconsistent start to conference play, Cole is remaining calm  entering the heart of the CAA season.

“There’s a lot of schedule left to be played,” she said. “We’ve played a good portion of the upper half of the conference so far, and we’ve been on the road. There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re going to be confident going into the middle of the schedule, and that we’ll be in a good place as a team come conference tournament time.”

The Huskies’ will look to come back from these defeats at the University of Delaware and Hofstra this weekend.

File photo by Jerry Yu