ALBANY, N.Y. - The University at Albany women's basketball team is set to host New Hampshire for a midweek contest.
 
During the contest, the Great Dane coaches will be wearing black in honor of the America East's Spread Respect initiative. The initiative raises awareness to ensure equality and safety for all student-athletes, coaches, and fans without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
 
For more on Spread Respect, click here.
 
Additionally, the Great Danes have partnered with the UAlbany sector of The Hidden Opponent to help raise awareness for student-athlete mental health and address the stigma within sports culture. In honor of THO, UAlbany will be incorporating green into their gameday apparel and wearing pins.
 
For more on The Hidden Opponent, click here.
 
GAME INFORMATION
 
New Hampshire at UAlbany
DATE: Wednesday, January 25
TIME: 7:00 PM
SITE: McDonough Sports Complex (HVCC) - Troy, N.Y.
RECORDS: UAlbany 13-8, 7-0 America East | New Hampshire 5-13, 0-6 America East
SERIES RECORD: 30-18, UAlbany leads
STATS: UAlbanySports.com
TICKETS: UAlbanySports.com
STREAM: ESPN+
INT'L STREAM: AE.TV
 
All UAlbany students are welcome to enjoy all UAlbany Athletics events for FREE with their student ID. Come out and support the Great Danes with the scan of a card - tactile or mobile. This year, all HVCC students are welcome to UAlbany events FREE with their student ID.
 
HEAD COACH COLLEEN MULLEN
"UNH has multiple offensive threats and keeps teams off balance by constantly changing their defenses. We need to be focused on playing with composure and taking care of the ball. Defensively, we want to make them feel uncomfortable for 40 minutes and finish all possessions with box outs."
 
GREAT DANE REWIND

• UAlbany opened the season 3-0 with victories over Merrimack (11/11), Siena (11/13), and Navy (11/16).
• Before heading to the UNLV Thanksgiving Tournament to compete against UNLV (11/25), ETSU (11/26), and Stetson (11/17), the Great Danes hosted Colgate (11/19) for their first loss of the season.
• Closing out November, UAlbany visited Canisius for its fourth victory (11/30). The Great Danes came back from a 10-point deficit in the beginning of the second half to take the 11-point victory.
• Hosting its final non-conference game of 2022, UAlbany fell in a close matchup to Cornell (12/3).
• The Great Danes saw a five-game road streak throughout December. Beginning with a win at Dartmouth (12/6) and a loss at Boston College (12/10), they defeated Stonehill (12/14) before falling to #3 Ohio State (12/16). 
• UAlbany closed the non-conference season with a loss at Syracuse (12/21).
• The Great Danes have won its last seven games to go 7-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
• UAlbany opened America East action with two double-digit wins over Vermont (12/29) and New Hampshire (1/1) before taking UMBC in an eight-point win, 61-53 (1/4).
• Returning to double-digit victories, the Great Danes took UMass Lowell (1/7), 62-38, and Bryant (1/11), 63-50.
• Most recently, the Great Danes tied a season-high with 73 points in a 73-54 win over NJIT (1/14) before defeating Binghamton (1/18) on the road.
• Junior Kayla Cooper leads the team with a .559 field goal percentage and senior Helene Haegerstrand leads from outside the arc (42.9%).
• Haegerstrand leads the team with 14.9 points per game. Graduate student Ellen Hahne (13.1) and Cooper (13.0) each average above 10 points per game.
• Cooper owns a team-high 7.4 rebounds per game from 10 contests. Hahne follows with 5.2 rebounds per game.
• Hahne owns team-highs with 49 assists and 21 steals while graduate student Lucia Decortes leads with 11 blocks.
• As a team, UAlbany is hitting 43.7% from the field, 35.6% outside the arc, and 73.8% from the free-throw line. The Great Danes are averaging 58.9 points per game and 33.5 rebounds per game with 11.7 assists per game, 6.1 steals per game, and 2.4 blocks per game.

 
ABOUT NEW HAMPSHIRE

• The Wildcats are 5-13 on the season with six conference losses.
• Starting out the season with a win against Colby-Sawyer (11/7), UNH headed on the road for three contests - a loss at Siena (11/10), a win at Dartmouth (11/13), and a loss at Holy Cross (11/16). 
• Returning home to face Northeastern (11/19), the Wildcats continued what proved to be a four-game loss streak with games against South Florida (11/22) and Boston University (11/27).
• New Hampshire closed out the first month of competition with a victory over CCSU (11/30).
• In December, the Wildcats alternated results seeing wins over Wagner (12/5) and Merrimack (12/21) and losses to Stonehill (12/3) and #3 Ohio State (12/8).
• Since beginning America East play, UNH has seen games against NJIT (12/29), UAlbany (1/1), Binghamton (1/4), Vermont (1/7), Bryant (1/16), and UMBC (1/21).
• Avery O'Connor leads the Wildcats with 13.0 points per game. Brooke Kane follows with 11.8 points per game.
• Kane and O'Connor lead on defense as well. Each has 5.9 rebounds per game while Kane has totaled 18 blocks and O'Connor has 15.
• Breezie Williams owns two team-highs with 44 assists and 33 steals.
• As a team, the Wildcats are hitting 34.6% from the field, 27.3% outside the arc, and 72.3% from the free-throw line. New Hampshire is averaging 53.7 points per game and 34.8 rebounds per game with 8.6 assists per game, 6.8 steals per game, and 2.5 blocks per game.

 
SERIES AGAINST THE WILDCATS

• UAlbany leads the all-time series, 30-18.
• Current head coach, Colleen Mullen, owns a 9-2 record against New Hampshire during her time with the Great Danes.
• Earlier this season, UAlbany defeated UNH (1/1) on the road, 71-46, in its second conference game of the year.
• New Hampshire and UAlbany met three times throughout the 2021-22 season.
• The Great Danes won all three contests, including one in the postseason. 
• On January 8, 2022, the Great Danes hosted the Wildcats for a 50-39 win. On February 19, UAlbany won the series with a 55-46 victory.
• The teams met in the postseason for the quarterfinal round at SEFCU Arena. In a close matchup, fourth-quarter scores from Kayla Cooper and Freja Werth made the difference in the 49-44 win.

 
PAST CONNECTIONS

• Head coach Colleen Mullen attended and graduated from New Hampshire. After playing at Rhode Island for two years, Mullen closed out her collegiate career as a two-year captain for the Wildcats. In just two seasons, she made her way to the 14th-highest mark in program history with 218 assists as a Wildcat.

 
AROUND THE AMERICA EAST

• UAlbany is the lone undefeated team in the conference with seven wins.
• Maine follows with a 5-1 America East record.
• Vermont and UMBC are tied with five wins in seven games.
• NJIT rounds out the teams with winning records with a 4-3 conference record.
• With an even 10-10 overall record, Binghamton holds three wins in seven conference contests.
• UMass Lowell and Bryant are tied with one league win but UML holds the edge with six losses to Bryant's seven.
• New Hampshire rounds out the conference on the lookout for its first win.

 
AMERICA EAST CONTESTS THIS WEEK

• Wednesday
  • Maine at UMass Lowell, 11 am
  • Binghamton at Vermont, 6 pm
  • NJIT at UMBC, 7 pm
  • New Hampshire at UAlbany, 7 pm
• Saturday
  • Vermont at UMBC, 12 pm
  • UAlbany at Maine, 1 pm
  • Binghamton at Bryant, 1 pm
  • New Hampshire at UMass Lowell, 5 pm

 
WHAT'S UP, PRESEASON

• With seven first-place votes and 59 total points, the Great Dane women's basketball team was picked to finish first in the conference in the preseason coaches' poll. Maine was just behind them with 54 points while Vermont came in third with 46 points and one first-place vote.
• Last season's offensive and defensive leaders, respectively, Helene Haegerstrand and Kayla Cooper were named to the America East Preseason All-Conference Team.
• UAlbany added three new players to the roster for the 2022-23 season - Taylor Moffat, Karyn Sanford, and Marie Sepp.

 
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

• The Great Danes are set to head to Maine for an afternoon contest on January 28.

 
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