Women's Basketball Falls Again

Baltimore, Md. – Carlee Cassidy netted 21 points while Erin Brown netted 14 points and shot 7-for-9 from the field to lead the UMBC Retrievers to a 76-63 victory over the University at Albany in America East Conference women’s basketball action on Wednesday afternoon. Trailing by 15 points at halftime, the Great Danes made it a one-possession game on three occasions in the second half. However, the Retrievers held off every rally to win their third conference game of the season.

UMBC (11-7, AE 3-2) scored the first four points of the game and led the entire first half. However, the Retrievers were not able to build greater than a four-point advantage until a layup by Toneisha Mack made it 20-14 with 9:50 left to play. Janea Aiken, who finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, converted a layup in transition to bring UAlbany within four, however, the Retrievers then embarked on a 9-0 run to pull ahead by a 13-point margin.

A layup by Amira Ford following her own defensive rebound with 5:36 left ended the streak, but the Great Danes could not bring the Retriever lead down to single digits before the stanza was over. A layup on the other end by Katie Brooks with 1:19 on the clock gave UMBC its largest lead of the frame at 40-25, which was how the first half ended.

UAlbany (3-14, AE 1-3) held the Retrievers without a field goal for over five minutes to start the second half. Britney McGee cut the deficit to 10 points by hitting two free throws and a three pointer, forcing the Retrievers to call a timeout at the 17:43 mark. A layup by UAlbany’s Tabitha Makopondo trimmed the lead to single digits. Aiken followed with a 10-foot jumper to make it a six-point game with 15:49 remaining to keep the crowd of 1,517 fans silent.

Two free throws by Cassidy, who joined the school’s 1,000-point club, scored the first UMBC points of the second half at the 15:32 mark, and Michelle Kurowski nailed the team’s first field goal of the half with 14:38 remaining in regulation. The Retrievers were forced to call another timeout with 12:01 on the clock when Ashley Lindsay hit a layup to make it a one-possession game at 47-44.

“I knew we should not have been in the hole we were in at halftime,” said Lindsay, who scored all of her career-high 10 points in the last 20 minutes. “I went out there (in the second half) ready to play. I felt that as a team, we stepped up on both sides of the ball. We just have to learn to put a full 40 minutes together.”

UMBC continued to shake off any threat by the Great Danes to take the lead, and a three-point field goal by Michele Brokans put her team ahead by eight, 58-50, with 6:33 left. UAlbany came as close as four points on three occasions before the Retrievers hit their free throws down the stretch to seal the final outcome.

For the game, the Retrievers outshot the Great Danes, 49.2 percent (29-59) to 38 percent (27-71) from the floor and 70.6 percent (12-17) to 50 percent (6-12) from the charity stripe. UMBC also outshot UAlbany 40 percent (6-15) to 16.7 percent (3-18), from behind the arc.

“We have not been able to put two great halves together on the road with the exception of our win over Rhode Island,” said head coach Trina Patterson. “UMBC shot us out of the gym in the first half. The second half was a little bit better, and we had good play from our post players which was encouraging. Our goal was to be at .500 right now in our conference games, so we have some ground to make up moving forward.”