By Daryl Velez

Veteran’s Day weekend was a learning experience for the women’s basketball team. The team edged out a come-from-behind 69-65 win against Coppin State University, with Northeastern spreading the ball around. Three players collected double figures: Ashlee Feldman at 18; Lucia Pablos at 12; and Kendra Walton at 11.

But perhaps more important than its victory Friday was the team’s 82-51 loss against Texas Tech in the latter half of the University of Central Florida Knights Classic. The Texas Tech Lady Raiders have been to the NCAA tournament 18 times in the course of its 32-year history, and were stiff competition for the Huskies.

Northeastern shot a dismal 18.9 percent from the field in the first half of the contest, but remained confident in its abilities in the second half, shooting at 39.3 percent during that interval. Despite their much better percentage in the second half, the Huskies still fell short of Texas Tech’s field goal percentage of 58.5.

“We just didn’t shoot the ball well at all,” said head coach Daynia LaForce Mann. “We took 65 shots and we forced them into 28 turnovers and got 14 offensive rebounds. We did all the right things to win the game; we just couldn’t put the ball in the basket.”

With the score 41-20 at half, NU couldn’t afford to miss easy buckets.

“I think we gave a good effort [despite] not being able to connect with most of our shots,” Mann said. “We shot, I think 50 percent against Coppin State and then you turn around and you shoot 27 percent against Texas Tech. And Texas Tech, don’t get me wrong, they’re a great team, they’re very physical, they pressured our lay-ups very well, they made it tough for us to get to the basket, which is what we thought that they would do, but at this level you can’t miss lay-ups. I don’t care who you are or who you’re playing against. At the Division I level you just can’t miss your lay-ups.”

However, the positive things to take away from the first weekend of actual games for the team are not to be missed. NU won its season opener, and with the adjustments made against a very good team in Texas Tech, the Huskies realized what they have to work on.

“We got the win against Coppin, which was the first win after nine losses last season,” Mann said. “We know what we need to do to win games and that’s the bottom line, that’s what we learned from this tournament.”

Northeastern will take the court Saturday against UMass in Soloman Court at 2 p.m.