Danes have a sense of urgency

Ualbany hosts NJIT in America East quarterfinal Friday at Broadview Center

ALBANY — Postseason basketball comes with a sense of urgency, especially to those who can see the finish line to their college careers. University at Albany fifth-year players Helene Haegerstrand and Sarah Karpell can feel the abruptness as they approach March Madness.

The America East Tournament begins Friday night with the quarterfinals, in which second-seeded Ualbany will play host to No. 7 New Jersey Institute of Technology.

A loss could end a stellar season for the Great Danes (24-5, 13-3) — there’s still the possibility of the WNIT, but that’s a discussion for another time — while a victory will allow the two graduate students and their teammates to continue their careers in hopes of an NCAA Tournament bid.

“The opportunity of getting a fifth year is that you feel like you have something more to give,” said Haegerstrand, a Swede who has 1,536 points in her 140-game Ualbany career. “Now we’re at that point where the playoff starts, and this is the year you realize that this is the last one. You try to make it as special as you can and just take it in every moment.”

“It’s definitely sinking in that

this is it,” said Karpell, who transferred after four years at Fordham in hopes of a postseason opportunity. “We’ve got hopefully three weeks left of our season, so just give it our all and try our best, and that’s all we can do.”

NJIT (12-17, 4-12) provides an interesting test for the Danes, who beat the Highlanders 77-36 on Jan. 6 in Albany but had a narrow escape Feb. 15 in Newark, taking a 38-36 victory.

After the first NJIT game, Ualbany was averaging 68.7 points per game. In the 14 games since then, thanks to injuries and other factors, the Danes have averaged 54.7.

Through it all, Ualbany has maintained its No. 1 position nationally in scoring defense (51.2).

“Our offensive output has significantly gone down, for multiple reasons,” Ualbany coach Colleen Mullen said. “When we played NJIT the first time, we hadn’t had any major injuries and our chemistry was building. We had gone undefeated in December.

“Then right at that NJIT game, Deja (Evans, 6-2 freshman) got injured and missed three or four games. The face of our team changed. We went from being balanced with our chemistry to focusing more on small ball. When Deja comes back in, Meghan (Huerter) goes out, and now we’re playing big ball again where we have three post players.

“People started having specific scouts on us — not defending Sarah, not defending Abby (Ray), not defending Deja outside the free-throw line, not defending Kayla (Cooper) outside the free-throw line. We’ve had to adjust multiple times what we’re doing.”

The Danes are back healthy, although they carry only 10 players on the roster. Cooper, selected first team all-conference Wednesday, leads Ualbany in scoring (15.7) and rebounding (7.6). Huerter, coming off the bench, ranks second in Division I in 3-point percentage (.471).

Evans also is at full strength, although she is coming off an 0-for-12 shooting performance Saturday in the Danes’ 63-46 loss at Maine.

“The season’s so long, she’s a freshman,” Mullen said. “She just got honored with all-rookie, all-defensive and America East third team. That’s a huge honor for her, but when you go 0-for-12 from the floor, that hurts you. People are challenging her to shoot over them. Her scoring isn’t what’s going to make or break us. She needs to bring it defensively, she needs to bring it for rebounding. She has to play with toughness, and that’s the most important thing.”

“She’s having a lot of responsibility being a freshman, but she’s handling it great,” Haegerstrand said. “She’s such a good player and person.”