The Northeastern women’s basketball team (4-3) faced the Wagner College Seahawks (2-5) at home last Wednesday for its first-ever disability awareness game. This follows the Huskies’ 58-47 victory over the Merrimack College Warriors (2-5). Northeastern continued its energy from the win to outpace the Seahawks, finishing 63-46.
The Huskies last faced Wagner in the 1986-87 season, which resulted in a 68-60 loss for Northeastern. Wagner came into this season’s matchup 0-3, after finishing out the 2022-23 season 13-15.
Wagner freshman forward Kiera Edmonds opened up the game with a layup, but it was the Seahawks’ only lead of the game. Huskies junior guard Gemima Motema followed 46 seconds later with an NU layup, setting the energy for the game. While the Huskies continued to grow their lead, resulting in the team up 31-19, they still had nine turnovers at halftime.
Wagner began to trim the deficit in the third quarter, tallying 19 points and limiting Northeastern to just 14. Still, the Huskies found a way to overtake the Seahawks, defeating the team 63-46.
“It wasn’t pretty, but we found a way to win so we’ll take it,” said head coach Priscilla Edwards-Lloyd.
Northeastern owed much of its success in the game to senior guard Maddie Vizza, who knocked down a career-tying seven three-pointers. Vizza was also the leading scorer of the game.
“I’m happy for [Vizza],” Edwards-Lloyd said. “She deserves a game like this. She works extremely hard. She’s always in the gym and she’s just always ready to step up … And today, it just happened to be her making some shots, so she definitely played like a senior tonight and made some big plays for us.”
Motema, an All-CAA preseason honoree, is the team’s second leading scorer at 70 points for the season, but she rarely shoots from outside the arc. Against Wagner, though, Motema attempted three three-pointers and made two.
“[Motema] spent a lot of time in the summer working on her shot,” Edwards-Lloyd said. “She knows that it’s her next layer of her game that she needs to develop, so I’m not saying I’m surprised by her making those shots because we tell her ‘Feet set; when you get open, kick out and be ready to shoot it and be confident,’ which she was today.”
While not a part of the starting lineup against the Seahawks, NU sophomore forward Oralye Kiefer played for 23 minutes during this game, the most time she has played in a game this season, and notched seven points.
“[Kiefer] was going to have to step up, so I’m pleased with the contributions she gave today,” Edwards-Lloyd said. “I thought that she really protected the paint for us at different times with her length and she hit some big shots too. She’s growing her confidence as well. This is just one of those games where different people had to step up, so I’m pleased with how [Kiefer] and [Vizza] and other players are coming up and making big plays for us.”
Though the Huskies were ultimately able to secure the win against Wagner, the team has more work to do before hitting the road.
“[The team] still has got to take care of the ball,” Edwards-Lloyd said. “We were better today, which was a good thing. Still some forced turnovers that we’ve got to improve on,”
Northeastern fell to Columbia University (3-4) on Saturday and traveled to Durham, New Hampshire Wednesday to face the University of New Hampshire Wildcats (3-5), falling 51-41. The Huskies will close out the road trip with games against Syracuse University (5-1) and College of the Holy Cross (2-3).
“The road is always a tough, tough place.” Edwards-Lloyd said. “You’ve got to have a different toughness about you and a mentality and connectedness, so we’re actually looking forward to getting on the road. We actually think that’s gonna prepare us for conference play which is around the corner. We’re gonna keep working on our defense, communication, being together and continuing to get better in any way we can.”
