ALBANY, N.Y. - The UAlbany women's basketball team is set to begin the 2024 America East Championship Tournament as they host NJIT for the quarterfinal round.
GAME INFORMATION
#7 NJIT at #2 UAlbany
DATE: Friday, March 8
TIME: 7:00 PM
SITE: Broadview Center - Albany, N.Y.
RECORDS: UAlbany 24-5, 13-3 America East | NJIT 12-17, 4-12 America East
SERIES RECORDS:
STATS:
UAlbanySports.com
STREAM:
ESPN+
INT'L STREAM:
AE.TV
TICKETS:
UAlbanySports.com
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.
UAlbany games notes |
NJIT game notes
*records as of March 6
A WEEK IN REVIEW
- The Great Danes split the final week of the regular-season action.
- Seeing both games on the road, UAlbany defeated New Hampshire and fell at Maine.
- In a close contest against the Wildcats, two Great Danes tallied double-digit points - graduate student Helene Haegerstrand (14) and junior Meghan Huerter (12).
- Haegerstrand and freshman Deja Evans led with seven rebounds each.
- Against the Black Bears, senior Kayla Cooper topped the team with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
GREAT DANE REWIND
- Working on defense throughout the entire season, the Great Danes lead the nation while holding their opponents to an average of 51.2 points per game.
- With an "offense comes from defense" mentality, UAlbany adds a top-ten national ranking with 37.84% shooting accuracy from three.
- At the conclusion of the regular season, the Great Danes hold a 24-5 record with 13 America East wins.
- Seeing just two losses during non-conference play, UAlbany went undefeated in December. The Great Danes saw victories over Merrimack (11.6), Sarah Lawrence (11.13), St. Bonaventure (11.16), Cornell (11.22), Siena (12.2), CCSU (12.6), Marist (12.9), Dartmouth (12.12), Stonehill (12.16), UMass (12.20) and Navy (12.30) with losses to Fordham (11.10) and Stanford (11.26) throughout the first half of the season.
- Adding just three during conference play, UAlbany swept the series against Bryant, NJIT, Binghamton, UMass Lowell, UMBC, and New Hampshire.
- The Great Danes split the series against Maine and fell in both contests to Vermont.
- Kayla Cooper leads the Great Danes with 15.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. The guard also owns a team-high 41 steals.
- Following Cooper with 7.2 rebounds per game, Deja Evans totals a team-high 42 blocks.
- Graduate student Sarah Karpell is the team's playmaker with 94 assists.
HAPPY AT HOME
- Done with their regular-season contests of 2023-24, the Great Danes have gone 13-1 at home.
- After a record-breaking home opener against Sarah Lawrence at the "home away from home" Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium, UAlbany defeated its first 10 home opponents during the 2023-24 season.
- The Great Danes have lost just four games at home since the start of the 2021-22 season.
- Going undefeated at home in non-conference play, Maine took the second-to-last regular-season home game of the 2021-22 season.
- Flipping the book for the 2022-23 season, UAlbany fell to Colgate and Cornell at "home" (Saint Rose and HVCC, respectively) while Broadview Center underwent its transformational overhaul.
- The Great Danes fell in their first home loss this season to Vermont on February 1.
AUTOMATIC SHOOTING
- UAlbany is ranked 10th in the country in three-point field goal percentage (.378).
- The Great Danes lead the America East in nearly all shooting categories: scoring defense (51.2), scoring margin (10.7), field goal defense (.370), three-point field goal percentage (.378), and three-point field goal defense (.269).
- Two Great Danes are ranked nationally with their respective stats:
- UAlbany has leaders across all the shooting categories:
MILESTONE WATCH
- Meghan Huerter hit her 100th career three-pointer against New Hampshire.
- Lilly Phillips is seven points away from 500 career points.
- Haegerstrand is two blocks away from recording her 100th career block.
- Sarah Karpell is six assists away from recording her 100th of the season. This would be the second time in her career that she has reached this milestone.
BETTER BACK-UP
- UAlbany's bench has scored 14.6 points per game this season (422 total).
- Junior Meghan Huerter leads the way, shooting .471 for three (first on the team) with top-four 8.3 points per game and 3.3 rebounds per game.
- Fellow junior Abby Ray is third on the team in offensive rebounds (41) and is fifth in assists with 35.
ABOUT NJIT
- The Highlanders finished the regular season 12-17 with a 4-12 league record.
- After finishing the non-conference season with an 8-5 record, NJIT began America East action with a loss to UAlbany (1.6).
- After additional losses to UMass Lowell (1.11), Vermont (1.13 & 2.8), New Hampshire (1.18), Maine (1.20), Bryant (1.25), UMBC (1.27), and Binghamton (2.1), the Highlanders earned their first conference record over UMass Lowell (2.10).
- Closing out America East action, NJIT split the series against UMass Lowell, New Hampshire, UMBC, and Bryant while falling in both contests to UAlbany, Vermont, Maine, and Binghamton.
- Alejandra Zuniga leads the team with 15.0 points per game and 59 assists.
- Trinity Williams leads NJIT on defense with 6.5 rebounds per game and 47 blocks.
- Kenna Squier has shown active hands while on defense, tallying a team-high 47 steals.
SERIES AGAINST THE HIGHLANDERS
- UAlbany leads the all-time series, 9-1.
- Current head coach, Colleen Mullen, has led the Great Danes to six wins over NJIT.
- In the second game of the AE season, UAlbany defeated the Highlanders, 77-36 (Jan. 6).
- Four Great Danes recorded double-digit points in the win - Helene Haegerstrand (15), Kayla Cooper (14), Meghan Huerter (14), and Deja Evans (11).
- Heading on the road, UAlbany came out on top in a defensive contest at NJIT, 38-36.
- Cooper led with 19 points and 11 rebounds, including the game-winning baskets.
UNDEFEATED DECEMBER
- The Great Danes powered through December without one loss.
- Seeing seven opponents, five at home, UAlbany was able to defeat each one by at least 10 points.
- Working as a team in each game, the Great Danes worked for several accomplishments throughout December.
- Four student-athletes earned double-digit points in two different contests:
- Four of the remaining five games had three student-athletes with double-digit points:
- CCSU (Dec. 6) - Cooper (14), Haegerstrand (14), Huerter (10)
- Dartmouth (Dec. 12) - Huerter (20), Haegerstrand (18), Cooper (16)
- Stonehill (Dec. 16) - Cooper (16), Evans (13), Huerter (11)
- Navy (Dec. 30) - Evans (26), Cooper (23), Haegerstrand (12)
- Three Great Danes tallied 20-point performances - Cooper (23 vs Marist (12.9) & 23 vs Navy) & Evans (26 vs Navy)
- Cooper has compiled three double-doubles (14 points & 12 rebounds against CCSU; 23 points & 13 rebounds against Marist; 16 points & 11 rebounds against Stonehill) while Evans added one in the final game of 2023 (26 points & 17 rebounds).
- Consistently improving from outside the arc, three Great Danes have shot 50% or above on multiple occasions:
- Meghan Huerter (5) - .500 (2-4) vs Siena, .750 (6-8) vs Dartmouth, .500 (3-6) vs Stonehill, .714 (5-7) at UMass, .500 (2-4) vs Navy
- Lilly Phillips (3) - .667 (2-3) at CCSU, .600 (3-5) vs Stonehill, .667 (4-6) at UMass
- Helene Haegerstrand (3) - .600 (3-5) vs Marist, .500 (4-8) vs Dartmouth, .500 (2-4) vs Navy
- As a team, UAlbany has shot at least 50% in four contests (Siena, Dartmouth, Stonehill, and UMass) with three games shooting 50% or higher from outside the arc (Dartmouth, Stonehill, and UMass).
DRIVE THE LANE WITH UALBANY HOOPS
- UAlbany will continue its partnership with ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team and City Line Bar & Grill for the third consecutive year.
- Coaches Colleen Mullen and Dwayne Killings, along with select student-athletes, will join ESPN Radio 104.5 The Team's 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 to City Line Bar & Grill to join Coach Mullen, Coach Killings, 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.
GUIDE TO THE AMERICA EAST
- Maine enters the America East tournament as the top seed.
- UAlbany finished the season close behind with just one less win.
- Sharing double-digit conference wins with the Black Bears and the Great Danes, Vermont finished the regular season third.
- Bryant earned the right to host a quarterfinal round with an 8-8 record and the tiebreaker over Binghamton.
- The Bearcats will be visiting Bryant as the fifth seed with an 8-8 record.
- UMBC (6th), NJIT (7th), and UMass Lowell (8th) round out the teams set to compete in a quarterfinal game.
- Tallying just three wins in conference play, New Hampshire will not compete in the America East tournament.
AMERICA EAST CONTESTS THIS WEEK
- Friday - Quarterfinals
- #8 UMass Lowell at #1 Maine, 5 pm
- #5 Binghamton at #4 Bryant, 6 pm
- #6 UMBC at #3 Vermont, 6 pm
- #7 NJIT at #2 UAlbany, 7 pm
- Monday - Semifinals
- Lowest remaining seed at highest remaining seed
- Second-lowest remaining seed at second-highest remaining seed
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 & Threads - @ualbanywbb
Facebook – facebook.com/UAlbanyWBB
