By Daryl Velez
The women’s basketball team will return home after a weekend of traveling with one more win and one more loss.
To start their road trip, the Huskies went north to Hanover, N.H., to face Dartmouth Thursday. From tip off, the Huskies were as cold as the New Hampshire weather, but eventually warmed up to bring the halftime score to a tight 24-20. They slumped again to begin the second half as the Big Green went on a 10-2 run, but the Huskies capitalized in the end by running the floor and sinking free throws.
The final score was 57-50 in the Huskies’ favor, and the score was indicative of how defensively the two teams played each other. By the end of the game, Dartmouth had won the battle of the boards, grabbing 29 defensive rebounds to the Huskies’ 28.
However, the more impressive figure of the game was Northeastern’s activity on the defensive end. The Huskies combined for 19 steals in the contest, the most in any game this season, resulting in a high turnover figure (27) for the Big Green.
After winning north of Boston, Northeastern headed south to face Long Island University Saturday. Strong defense and turnovers would highlight the weekend for NU. Unfortunately for the Huskies, Brooklyn was not as friendly a place as New Hampshire, and the Huskies lost in the latter half of the weekend, 67-47.
There were several differences in the statistics between the games: first, the Huskies went from a contest where they had forced a lot of turnovers to one where they only forced a handful (13). Secondly, NU took a nosedive in the steals column.
With a season high of 19 steals in the Dartmouth game, Northeastern was sure to come off that pace, but taking only eight balls away from its competition in New York played a part in the loss. Rebounds were more a concern in the LIU game than any other.
The Huskies allowed their opposition to grab more than 40 boards in both games, but it was the variety of rebounds that hurt Northeastern. LIU took 21 rebounds on the offensive end of the court to contribute to its game total of 44, while Dartmouth only had 16 of its eventual 45 come from offense.
A difference of five offensive rebounds allowed per game was the turning point in an otherwise tight contest.
A few more forced turnovers and defensive rebounds for the Huskies could have led the team to sweep their road trip, instead of facing the 20 point loss they suffered.
But all is not lost in the Huskies camp. The now 3-3 (0-0 Colonial Athletic Association) Huskies will face Syracuse in New York in their next game Sunday. They will return home to play Dec. 15 against New Hampshire at 2 p.m.
