By John Hagerty, deputy sports editor
After a regular season marked by a program-best 11 CAA wins, the Northeastern women’s basketball team’s play faltered in the postseason.
The Huskies suffered two first round losses, first in the CAA tournament and then the Women’s Basketball Invitational, or WBI. At the CAAs the Huskies fell 61-51 to the University of Delaware, a team they had beaten twice during the regular season. After their loss at CAAs, the Huskies were selected to play in the WBI. With the selection, head coach Kelly Cole led the program to its first postseason appearance since 1999.
While the invitation to the WBI allowed the team to have a chance to rebound from their CAA tournament loss, the Huskies were not able to capitalize. Thursday night at Cabot Center in their WBI matchup with Yale University, NU lost control of the game in the second quarter.
Yale first-year guard Tori Andrew had 11 first half points as the Bulldogs extended their lead to 13 in the second quarter. Yale never relinquished their lead after the 9:33 mark in the second quarter and won 68-58.
Third-year guard Jess Genco expressed the postseason success requires a more focused mindset.
“Postseason play is different,” Genco said. “You have to bring it every possession and you can’t afford to have mental lapses. It’s a whole different ball game.”
Genco scored her 1,000th career point against Yale and led the Huskies with 19 points. Two others joined her in double figures, as first-year Stella Clark and second-year Jasmine Braswell each had 10.
Despite the poor results, the team expressed gratitude for the chance to compete in the postseason.
“We did a lot of work this year,” Cole said. “This is not the outcome we were hoping for, but we are thankful to have the opportunity to be a part of the madness and to come back and take it into the offseason in a different light.”
The team is now looking forward to the offseason in order to improve and prepare for next season.
“I think that we’re definitely taking steps forward individually and as a program,” Genco said. “We can see ourselves reaching that final end goal.”
Despite the losses capping the season, Cole felt that the team’s 2017-18 campaign was ultimately a success because of the team’s development throughout the year.
“This was a great year,” Cole said. “It doesn’t feel great right now, but we had great wins and a lot of progress from different people. We will continue to move in the right direction.”
