Danes dominate overtime after Cooper’s clutch free throw
UAlbany outscores Bearcats 11-1 in extra period of conference clash
TROY — The University at Albany women’s basketball team finally showed that it could make a winning — or at least tying — play in the final seconds of a game.
Down one with less than three seconds left, junior forward Kayla Cooper went up for a layup. Her attempt missed, but she drew a foul — senior guard Clare Traeger bumped her.
With no time left on the clock, Cooper stepped to the free-throw line and made one of two shots, sending the game to overtime, in which the Great Danes (17-10, 11-2 America East) outscored Binghamton (13-12, 6-6) 11-1 for a 63-53 win.
“I really just try to block out all the noise and everything, and I shoot free throws every day in practice, and I know how to knock them down. I just knew I had to make one, so that’s all I really was thinking in my head,” Cooper said.
Once in overtime, fifth-year forward Lucia Decortes made critical defensive plays, recording three of her four blocks, including rejecting Binghamton’s first shot attempt. She also scored the first points of extra time, getting the ball from senior guard Fatima Lee for an uncontested layup.
“It doesn’t take talent to play good defense, so it’s just like, you have to be focused on the scout and be focused on what you need to do to not make them score. I feel like we were all in the zone. You could tell. Like, everyone was so focused. We were talking, and we wanted to win the game,” Decortes said.
The two previous games in which UAlbany trailed by one possession or less in the final seconds, at Maine and Vermont, were both losses.
“I think our players really needed this for our confidence,” UAlbany coach Colleen Mullen said.
Cooper led the Great Danes with 17 points and nine rebounds. Senior forward Helene Haegerstrand
had 16 points and six boards. She fouled out with 1:45 left in overtime, but not before hitting a turnaround jump shot to give UAlbany a five-point lead. Senior guard Grace Heeps and fifth-year guard Ellen Hahne had 11 points each.
Binghamton was without leading scorer Denai Bowman, who averages 12.6 points per game, due to injury.
“It completely changed our philosophy on ball screens, it completely changed our philosophy on hand-offs and how we were going to defend their players,” Mullen said. “It’s not a bad thing — she’s one of the best players in the league — but it also kind of messes with your head a little bit.”
In Bowman’s absence, redshirt freshman forward Jadyn Weltz stepped up, scoring 12 points with three assists, five steals and eight rebounds, as well as drawing six fouls. She made two free throws to cut UAlbany’s lead to 51-50 with 90
seconds left, then drove on Decortes for a layup to give Binghamton a one-point lead with 11.3 seconds left.
“I thought Weltz did a really good job of just playing off two feet and jump-stopping and giving us shot fakes,” Mullen said. “You could see Lucia looked defeated after that, and I was like, ‘You got to keep your head up. Don’t worry about it.’ ”
She kept the 6-foot-3 forward in to start overtime.
“I play hard in defense, and that’s my role. So when she trusted me for that, like, OK now I have to prove (to) her that I can do it,” Decortes said.
UAlbany was called for some costly fouls in the fourth period, sending Binghamton to the line four times in the final four minutes. But the Bearcats didn’t take full advantage, going 4-for-8 after shooting 10-for-10 from the freethrow line through the first three quarters.
The 943 people making noise in the Hudson Valley Community College gym certainly didn’t help.
“That was huge. That definitely helped us to push through and have the extra energy and extra boost to finish the game,” Decortes said of the crowd’s support.
Traeger led the Bearcats with 13 points and eight rebounds, and freshman guard Meghan Casey added 11 points. Redshirt freshman guard Ella Wanzer, who averages 12 points per game and is the top 3-point shooter in the America East, scored seven points and was 0-for-3 from 3.
Wanzer scored 21 points in UAlbany’s last game with Binghamton, and Heeps, who was tasked with guarding her, “took that personally,” Mullen said. “She was like, Ella Wanzer’s not going to score on me. I don’t care if I have zero points, she’s going to have zero points too. And I’m really proud of her. She did a really good job.”
In fact, no one on Binghamton made a 3-pointer. The Bearcats finished 0-for-14 from behind the arc.