By Daryl Velez
On Jan. 31, the women’s basketball team broke its eight game losing streak and grabbed its first win of the season – 59-54 – against Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) opponent Drexel. But the victory proved short lived by Sunday, when the team lost 57-52 to Delaware.
In Thursday’s win, freshman guard Jasmine Crew finished with a team high 16 points.
“We were on a losing streak, so we were just looking to come out and play really hard,” she said. “We’re just looking to take it one game at a time. We’ve got games against people that we’ve already played now, and we need to beat them.”
The difference between the two games was slight. In both games, a change of one or two possessions could have meant the opposite outcome.
Against Drexel, the Huskies came off the court after the first half with a five-point lead. Conversely, against Delaware the deficit was in favor of the visitors at half, 34-28.
“I think the second half really exemplified what we are as a team,” said coach Daynia LaForce Mann. “We fought hard in the second half. We boxed out, our defense was perfect. Offensively, we were very aggressive.”
But the difference in the game was the first half.
“We gave up 18 offensive rebounds and 22 [second chance] points. That’s like starting the game 22 to nothing,” she said.
Certain statistics that favored the Huskies in their first game of the weekend ended up being statistics that drastically favored their opponents in the game.
Up 24-19 in defensive rebounds in the Drexel game, Northeastern dropped the figure for total rebounds by a count of 12 against Delaware. The turnover deficit was nearly doubled from the four extra points Northeastern gave up against Drexel to seven against the Blue Hens.
Leadership on a young team can mean a positive or negative swing in important statistics like rebounding and turnover ratio.
Senior guard Shaleyse Smallwood had 10 points in the Sunday outing.
“It’s the little things that we’ve got to do,” she said. “We’re pretty much in every game. There’s always room for improvement so that’s what we’ve got to focus on, not turning the ball over and having better possessions.”
In the end, the swing of possession was enough to allow Delaware to get a win, and for Drexel to cough one up. Foul trouble also plagued Northeastern in Sunday’s game, but not in the Thursday win.
Four Northeastern players had four or more fouls against Delaware, and one had a technical foul.
“I think we still need to put some pieces out on the floor,” Mann said. “I think we sometimes struggle with our intensity and our confidence, but that’s something that, being a losing program for so long, you have to teach your kids how to win, how to maintain a winning attitude. When people are coming back on you in end of game situations, that’s something we’re trying to teach our kids, to have that confidence.”
The team’s next game is home Thursday against James Madison at 7 p.m.
