Women’s basketball unable to find first conference win

The UAlbany women’s basketball team continued its struggles in conference play with a 59-36 loss at Hartford on Sunday.
    Hartford, who sits first place in America East play, was led by 23 points from Diana Delva while Ebone Henry put in 16 points for the Danes in a losing effort.
    UAlbany lost 87-77 to New Hampshire on Friday night as the poor shooting that has been plaguing the team continued to be an issue.
   The Great Danes shot a dismal 37.3 percent from the field as the Wildcats were able to hit big shots and dominate in the paint. New Hampshire’s Kelley Flynn, a 6’5” sophomore, was huge off the bench as she finished the game second on the team with 16 points as she as well as forward Denise Beliveau pounded the Danes in the paint all night.
   The Wildcats (7-12, 2-4 AE) had five players finish the game in double digits in points as throughout the game Albany was unable to contain their size advantage.
   Down 48-30 at the half after 20 minutes of play that saw Albany never hold a lead, the Danes fought back to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 66-60 with 8:44 to play thanks to the outstanding play of Julie Forster and Melia Basavand, who hit big shot after big shot off the bench to keep the Danes within striking distance. However, after a UNH timeout the Danes missed on shots to cut it closer and the Wildcats scored three quick baskets to regain the double-digit lead.
   “We could’ve been more selective,” said guard Charity Iromuanya, who finished the game with 14 points. “But you just got to stay tight on [defense]. If we’re not making shots, keep them from scoring. But we missed some shots and they scored on us three times in a row and that’s what really hurt us.”
   “[New Hampshire coach Kristin Cole] called the timeout because we had a run and we were about to close that gap so the timeout cooled us off,” coach Trina Patterson said. “When she called the timeout they went on another 6-0 run and made it to ten and then we couldn’t close the gap after that. That’s kind of the ebb and flow of the game; when you’re making runs they cool you off.”
   New Hampshire was able to pull away and the Danes were unable to respond, sending the Wildcats back home with their second conference win.
   The loss was the Danes fifth in a row in the conference as they continued their pace as the last-ranked offense in the America East. However, Patterson was able to take positives out of the game.
   “Today was a positive because we scored 77 points and that’s the most we’ve scored since maybe November. So, we were able to finally break some scoring issues against the zone [defense],” Patterson said. “But we were able to do what we really wanted on offense; it was a defense game today and that’s something we haven’t had to struggle with, but today it was a struggle.”
   The game saw Forster and Basavand both record career highs in scoring 18 and 21 points, respectively.
   Basavand finished the day 7-for-11 on three-point attempts on the day, recording all of her points behind the arc with many of them coming from way out of expected range. She ended up finishing the day two three-pointers away from the school record.
   “For Melia I think it was really good because it was a good confidence booster. She’s been in a little bit of a slump so today just got her back on the positive side,” Iromuanya said.
   Patterson was impressed by Forster’s ability despite this only being her first year on the team.
   “She’s just been productive and she gets better every game,” Patterson said of Forster. “She’s just learning, she’s a freshman and she’s playing a lot of minutes which she can do because she has a great fitness level.”