Danes begin the WNIT at Umass
Ualbany puts loss in final behind it
ALBANY — The University at Albany women’s basketball team has its sights set firmly on the future.
A week after losing by two points in the America East championship game, the Great Danes (22-11, 14-2 league) will start WNIT play with a trip to the University of Massachusetts-amherst.
The first-round game starts at 7 p.m. Friday.
“Yesterday we kind of closed the book (on the championship loss) and it was like, all right, we know who we’re playing, we’re ready to take on Umass and we can’t really do anything, control anything, about the past, we can only learn from it,” senior guard Grace Heeps said before the team left Wednesday.
Heeps started her college basketball career at Umass, scoring 16 points in 17 games (6.4 minutes per game) as a freshman. She transferred to Ualbany during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is kind of like a full-circle moment, never thought that this would happen,” Heeps said of returning to Amherst.
Like Ualbany, Umass (26-6) won a regular-season title but lost in the title game, 91-85, to Saint Louis.
“I’m sure, just like us, turning that frustration and disappointment into fuel and motivation, they’re
going to come in on the attack,” Ualbany coach Colleen Mullen said.
Graduate forward Sam Breen, the back-to-back Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, leads a potent offense that scores 76 points per game, 27th nationally.
Breen averages 17.5 points and 10.1 rebounds per game and is tied for 10th in the country with 18 doubledoubles this season. She’s also 12th nationally in rebounds (323) and 24th in made field goals (470).
“We can’t defend her with just one player, so we’re going to have to mix up how we’re going to defend her,” Mullen said.
All-a-10 first-team senior guard Sydney Taylor is one of the best 3-point shooters in the country with 96 makes (seventh nationally) at a 38.3 percent clip. The matchup pits strength against strength. Ualbany allows 54.4 points per game, 12th fewest in Division I.
“Obviously Umass scores a lot of points, but their defense isn’t where we’re at. They’re definitely a more offensive-predominant team,” Heeps said. “I think really focusing on getting stops against their offense will fuel our offense.”
No matter how good their defense is, the Great Danes will need a better offensive performance than the one they had against
Vermont in the America East title game. They scored 36 points on 24.6 percent shooting, both season lows, and made just two field goals in each of the first three quarters.
“It was one of those days for us. We were missing bunnies, things were going inside and out, and it had a lot to do with nerves and it had to do with Vermont’s defense,” Mullen said.
In nonconference games against Ohio State and Syracuse, the Great Danes acquitted themselves well, leading the Orange until the third quarter and trailing by just three at halftime against the Buckeyes. Fifthyear guard Ellen Hahne, one of the team’s best defenders, who averages 11.5 points per game, missed both games due to COVID-19 protocols.
Though Ualbany didn’t complete its preseason goal of winning back-to-back championships, playing Umass gives the team an opportunity to earn a statement win. But that’s secondary to the goal of playing as long as possible.