ALBANY, N.Y. - The America East Tournament begins as the #2 UAlbany women's basketball team hosts #7 New Hampshire.
Masks are no longer required to attend UAlbany's indoor athletic events.
This weekend marks the ninth year for Coaches Powering Forward: NCAA Autism Awareness and Acceptance Weekend. This weekend is an annual effort to bring the NCAA community together in support of the mission of Autism Speaks. This year, UAlbany head coach
Colleen Mullen joins founder, Pat Skerry, to lead Coaches Powering Forward. Teams that have joined the campaign will be wearing pins throughout this weekend, March 4-6. For more information about the campaign,
click here.
GAME INFORMATION
#7 New Hampshire at #2 UAlbany
DATE: Saturday, March 5
TIME: 2:00 PM
SITE: SEFCU Arena - Albany, N.Y.
RECORDS: UAlbany 20-9, 13-5 America East | New Hampshire 7-20, 4-12 America East
SERIES RECORD: 28-18, UAlbany leads
STATS:
UAlbanySports.com
TICKETS:
UAlbanySports.com
STREAM:
ESPN+
AMERICA EAST TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
*records as of 3/4
HEAD COACH COLLEEN MULLEN
"New Hampshire is a talented team that competes on every possession. We need to be focused on the game plan and be ready to handle their inside/out attack for 40 minutes. Limiting turnovers and overall offensive execution will be important pieces to us having success."
GREAT DANE REWIND
- With a defense-first mentality, UAlbany is holding its opponents to just 48.6 points per game to own the second-best scoring defense in the nation.
- In addition to scoring defense, the Great Danes are 40th in the country, allowing just a .364 field goal percentage from their opponents.
- UAlbany opened the season on a strong note, defeating Hofstra (11/10) for the first time in program history. The 29-point victory over the Pride served as the first of seven games, so far, in which the Great Danes won by at least 20 points.
- The Great Danes closed their non-conference slate with a 7-4 record.
- UAlbany split the Hartford, Vermont, and Stony Brook series and swept NJIT, Binghamton, UMBC, UMass Lowell, and New Hampshire.
- UAlbany was undefeated at home (13-0), until the second-to-last game of the season when Maine beat the Great Danes, 49-45, on February 23.
- Closing the regular season, UAlbany came back from a 16-point deficit in the fourth beginning of the fourth quarter to beat Stony Brook, 57-56, on February 26.
- Junior Helene Haegerstrand (357, 12.3 per game) and sophomore Kayla Cooper (322, 11.1 per game) lead the team with their respective point tallies.
- Redshirt-sophomore Abby Robinson leads the team, shooting 75% (6-8) from 28 minutes of play in 10 games. Senior Lucia Decortes holds a .545 (67-123) shooting percentage, leading all players who have seen the court for more than 40 minutes this season.
- Haegerstrand leads from outside the arc with a .378 (51-135) shooting percentage.
- Cooper leads the team as the only player with over 150 rebounds. She has totaled 202 (7.0 pg) so far with 128 defensive and 74 offensive rebounds. Decortes passed the 100-rebound mark against Maine, totaling 132 so far.
- Freshman Lilly Phillips owns a team-high 66 assists. Redshirt-sophomore Morgan Haney is close behind with 64.
- Cooper (37) and Haney (37) share the transition spotlight with their respective steal totals.
- Decortes has compiled a team-high 43 blocks. Eleven players on the 13-person roster have totaled at least two blocks.
- Every single player from the 13-person roster saw action and contributed with a point or an assist in the season-opening game - Hofstra.
- Of the 1,662 points scored in 29 games, the bench has tallied 444 points. This includes half (26) of the 52 points scored at Merrimack (11/16), almost half (29) of the 60 points scored against Bryant (12/1), almost half (32) of the 65 points scored against Canisius (12/15), and almost half (28) of the 61 points scored against New Hampshire (2/16).
- As a team, UAlbany is hitting 40.9% from the field, 32.4% outside the arc, and 66.9% from the free-throw line.
- The Great Danes are averaging 57.3 points per game, 35.4 rebounds per game, and 12.8 assists per game.
2022 POSTSEASON AWARDS
ABOUT NEW HAMPSHIRE
- The Wildcats are 7-20 overall with a 4-12 America East record.
- New Hampshire opened the season on the road, falling to No. 9 Iowa (11/9), before winning its first game at home against Dartmouth (11/13).
- Before seeing their first conference game on January 5, the Wildcats closed their non-conference slate with a 3-8 record, earning wins against Dartmouth, Fisher (11/21), and Siena (11/23).
- The Wildcats swept the AE series against Hartford while splitting the series against Binghamton and NJIT. UHN fell in both series games against Vermont, UAlbany, Maine, and Stony Brook.
- Two games - versus UMBC and UMass Lowell - were declared no contest. Both UMBC and UMass Lowell won the game played against the Wildcats.
- Amanda Torres leads the team with 10.3 points per game (268 total). She also owns team-highs with 46 steals and 69 assists.
- Paige Cote has the most accurate shooting percentage, making 46% of her shots from the field. Héléna Delaruelle leads with 31% accuracy from outside the arc.
- Delaruelle leads the team with 5.3 rebounds per game. Her 90 defensive rebounds serve as a team-high while Bella Stuart leads with 43 offensive rebounds.
- Stuart also owns a team-high 12 blocks.
- As a team, New Hampshire is hitting 36.3% from the field, 23.8% outside the arc, and 67.5% from the free-throw line.
- The Wildcats are averaging 53.3 points per game, 32.9 rebounds per game, and 10.3 assists per game.
SERIES AGAINST THE WILDCATS
- The Great Danes hold the lead in the all-time series, 28-18.
- Current head coach, Colleen Mullen, owns a 7-2 series record against New Hampshire.
- Her first year, 2018-19, the Great Danes saw two wins, but the Wildcats came back with their own two wins during the 2019-20 season.
- UAlbany saw three wins over New Hampshire during the 2020-21 season, including a 49-43 win to advance to the America East Semifinal.
- Earlier this season, the Great Danes defeated New Hampshire at SEFCU Arena, 50-39, for their conference opener on January 8 before defeating the Wildcats on the road on February 19.
AROUND THE AMERICA EAST
- Maine finished the season as the America East Regular Season Champions. As the first seed in the tournament, the Black Bears will host eighth-seeded Hartford for a quarterfinal game.
- Stony Brook finished second in the regular season with a 14-4 record but is ineligible for the tournament.
- Vermont and UAlbany closed the regular season tied with a 13-5 conference record. In defeating the Seawolves, the Great Danes won the tiebreaker and will begin the tournament hosting #7 New Hampshire as the second seed.
- Third-seeded Vermont will host sixth-seeded Binghamton and #5 UMass Lowell will visit #4 NJIT.
- UMBC did not qualify for the tournament after tallying just two wins.
- Following the close of the non-conference season Stony Brook (9-1), UAlbany (7-4), and Vermont (6-5) were the only three teams with a winning record. NJIT (5-6), Binghamton (4-6), UMass Lowell (3-6), Maine (3-7), New Hampshire (3-8), UMBC (1-9), and Hartford (0-11) each had losing records before the start of the conference season.
AMERICA EAST TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
- Women's
- Saturday (Quarterfinals)
- #8 Hartford at #1 Maine, 1 pm
- #7 New Hampshire at #2 UAlbany, 2 pm
- #6 Binghamton at #3 Vermont, 2:30 pm
- #5 UMass Lowell at #4 NJIT, 4 pm
- Tuesday (Semifinals)
- Lowest remaining seed at highest remaining seed
- Second-lowest remaining seed at second-highest remaining seed
- Friday (Championship)
- Lowest remaining seed at highest remaining seed
- Men's
- Sunday (Quarterfinals)
- #6 Binghamton at #3 New Hampshire, 1 pm
- #7 UMass Lowell at #2 UMBC, 1 pm
- #5 UAlbany at #4 Hartford, 2 pm
- #8 NJIT at #1 Vermont, 2 pm
- Wednesday (Semifinals)
- Lowest remaining seed at highest remaining seed
- Second-lowest remaining seed at second-highest remaining seed
- Saturday (Championship)
- Lowest remaining seed at highest remaining seed
WHAT'S UP, PRESEASON
- The Great Dane women's basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the conference in the preseason coaches' poll. With six first-place votes and 78 total points, Stony Brook was voted to finish first with Maine just behind (74 points, three first-place votes).
- UAlbany added four new players to the roster for the 2021-22 season - Koi Sims, Lilly Phillips, Abby Ray, and Freja Werth
DRIVE THE LANE WITH UALBANY HOOPS
- UAlbany has expanded its partnership with ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team and City Line Bar & Grill.
- Coaches Colleen Mullen and Dwayne Killings, along with select student-athletes, will join ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team's Charlie Voelker and Dan Bahl every Monday from 6-7 pm live from City Line Bar & Grill for a weekly segment entitled 'Drive the Lane with UAlbany Hoops'.
- Fans are invited to come out to City Line Bar & Grill to join Coach Mullen, Coach Kills, the student-athletes, and the ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team crew.
- Food and drink specials will be available on a weekly basis as the teams embark on their new seasons and talk hoops every Monday.
UP NEXT
- If the Great Danes beat New Hampshire, they will host an America East Semifinal game on Tuesday, March 8 at 7 pm.
For more information on the University at Albany women's basketball team, follow the squad's official social media accounts shown below.
Twitter - @ualbanywbb
Instagram - @ualbanywbb
Facebook – facebook.com/UAlbanyWBB
