ualbany wbb WBB - Game 26/Conference Game 13 @ Vermont Catamounts, Patrick Gym, Burlington, VT, Thursday, February 22, 2024, 6:00 PM

[cwdickens]

A win is necessary to keep pace with the Maine Bears...and earning a split with Vermont...Vermont has lost twice at home this season

 

Feb 22 (Thu) 6:00 PM

AE

at 

Vermont

Burlington, Vt.

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[cwdickens]

From today's Times-Union:

UALBANY WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

 

UAlbany out to avenge rare loss

 

By Pete Dougherty

Jim Franco/Times Union archive

UAlbany’s Sarah Karpell, right, said the Danes have been working hard on getting back on defense, something Vermont took advantage of in a game on Feb. 1.

ALBANY — Here’s something new for the University at Albany women’s basketball team. For the first time, the Great Danes are preparing for an opponent they lost to earlier in the season.

UAlbany (22-3, 11-1 America East), tied atop the America East standings with Maine, seeks to avenge its lone conference loss Thursday night, facing Vermont at Patrick Gymnasium in Burlington.

 

“We’re definitely making adjustments, but so are they,” graduate forward Helene Haegerstrand said. “We’ve made adjustments, even if it was a win or a loss, for every game, because you play each other twice. The second game’s always a lot different.”

The Catamounts defeated the Great Danes 64-59 on Feb. 1 at Broadview Center in Albany.

“We’re disappointed that we didn’t get the win in Broadview because it’s our home court,” UAlbany coach Colleen Mullen said. “We play well here. We let that one slip away, but we didn’t play particularly well and we still were in a position to win the game.”

Vermont (18-9, 10-3) had an early 8-0 run and led the final 37 minutes and 15 seconds. The Catamounts, who shot 48 percent against UAlbany, subsequently lost games to Maine and Binghamton. A loss Thursday night likely takes them out of contention for the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, which begins in 15 days.

“It’s the biggest game of the year because it’s the next one we have,” Mullen said. “They’re all big. We have to beat UMass Lowell (on Saturday). We’ve got to beat New Hampshire. We’ve got Maine. But the fact that they have that win on us, you want to get the split. We don’t want to be swept by them, so our players are going to be ready, they’re going to be focused.”

The Danes could get a boost if junior guard Meghan Huerter, who leads the nation in 3-point percentage (.490), returns. Huerter has missed the past three games with an upper-arm injury.

“We’re hopeful that she’s going to play,” Mullen said Wednesday.

“Not having her on the floor makes it a lot harder for us to get our posts touches, because they’re crowding the paint,” point guard Sarah Karpell said of Huerter. “When she’s out there, teams are face-guarding her, they’re chasing her around the 3-point line, which makes it easier for our bigs to get open shots.”

Beyond that, the Danes are hoping to reverse some disturbing recent trends.

For starters, while UAlbany continues to allow a Division I-best 51.0 points per game, Vermont caught the Danes’ defense slow in getting back a few times in the earlier meeting.

“Transition defense was a really big one for us,” Karpell said. “We were not getting back, and they were sprinting on us. We’ve been working on that the past couple of days and just focusing on stopping the ball earlier and just making them work on defense.”

Another issue has been slow starts. UAlbany trailed at halftime of its past three games, needing second-half rallies to beat Binghamton, NJIT and UMBC.

“We have still yet, in a 22-win season, to truly play four quarters,” Mullen said. “That’s something that’s been an Achilles’ heel for us. We need a great start. They started off extremely strong the last game and dictated the tempo. We can’t allow that. We can’t be jogging back.”

UALBANY AT VERMONT

When: 6 p.m. Thursday

Where: Patrick Gymnasium, Burlington, Vt.

TV: ESPN+ (streaming)

[tnehurley]

Very good article. Good point by Coach Mullen that they didn’t play really well vs. Vt. at home, but still could have won. Credit to Vt’s defense. I expect them to play well tonight. IMHO, Haegerstrand has to score more than she has recently. Not 20, but in the teens! Kayla is going to score, but we need double figures from Helene. Fairly promising news on Huerter.

Wouldn’t it be nice if this 6:00 ladies game was on a TV in “the corner” before 7:00  tipoff for the men’s game? It has been done before. We requested that, pretty much knowing there would be no response. We were right. Go lady Danes!

[tnehurley]

Well, we’ve just been told that there will be a TV in the corner tonight, for the ladies game. Outstanding!

[nysteve661]

Obviously UVM has the ladies number this season, ugly so far.  Hope they can avoid them in AE tourney.  

[tnehurley]

I was wrong. The ladies did not play well at all. Credit again to Vermont’s D.  Does not bode well for post-season, despite our record. Looking forward to Senior Day Saturday.

[alum73]

I think the team is very tired.  Only 10 players in uniform is taking a toll.

[jimbo]

Quite the bad loss for the women. Not even competitive.