A two-game street journey shortly earlier than a convention match wherein the seedings have already got been set wouldn’t appear to be the best approach for a school basketball workforce to finish the common season, however the College at Albany ladies had been completely happy to get on the courtroom.
UAlbany closed the guide on a tumultuous 2020-21 schedule Tuesday with a 62-42 loss at Stony Brook. It was the second straight day that the Seawolves, seeded second for the upcoming America East Event, beat the Nice Danes, following a 58-46 triumph Monday.
Neither sport was as lopsided because the rating would possibly point out, however profitable or shedding wasn’t going to alter something for the match.
The Danes (6-10, 5-7) had been locked into the No. 4 seed and can play host to fifth-seeded New Hampshire at 5 p.m. Sunday.
Stony Brook (13-5, 11-3) has a bye into the semifinals. Had it not been for these two video games, the Seawolves would have been off for 3 weeks earlier than enjoying its first match sport March 7.
Due to its fourth COVID-19 pause of the season, UAlbany had been off for 15 days earlier than Monday’s sport.
“We’d not have needed to come back off of a pause and never have been in a position to compete earlier than the quarterfinal sport,” Danes coach Colleen Mullen stated on a postgame Zoom name.
Even so, the Danes had simply three observe days earlier than heading to Lengthy Island. They overcame a 13-point deficit in Monday’s sport to take the lead with 5 minutes remaining however had been outscored 16-3 the remainder of the way in which.
Though they by no means led Tuesday, the Danes stayed with the Seawolves, who lead the America East in rebound margin, till the fourth quarter. Stony Brook outscored UAlbany 23-11 and outrebounded the Danes 13-5 within the ultimate 10 minutes.
“We knew that we had been going to have the ability to play with them,” Mullen stated, “however we had been involved as a result of quite a lot of our starters had performed quite a lot of minutes. So not having our legs immediately reared its ugly head within the fourth quarter.”
Kyara Frames, who led the Danes with 12 factors, performed 39 minutes after going 38 Monday. The Danes did get 51 minutes off the bench over two video games from freshman Kayla Cooper, whose 16 factors and 9 rebounds earned her America East Rookie of the Week honors for the second time this season.
For the reason that final result was secondary, the Danes had been in a position to work on some parts of their protection, based on Mullen.
“We constructed quite a lot of confidence from our strain,” she stated. “We pressured for 40 minutes in each video games, and we turned Stony Brook over so much (30 in two video games). We additionally performed some zone, which we’ve not been in a position to have the boldness to go to our zone but this 12 months. That was actually vital for us as we go into the convention match, to really feel like we might swap up the defenses and play a little bit zone.”