SCORE: UAlbany 68, UMBC 60
 
LOCATION: Broadview Center - Albany, N.Y.
 
RECORDS: UAlbany 23-5, 13-2 America East | UMBC 14-13, 7-8 America East
 
SHORT STORY: The Great Danes battled UMBC in a close back-and-forth contest eventually winning 68-60 to clinch the first seed in the America East Championship Tournament.
 
COACH COLLEEN MULLEN: "This was a really special win for our team and for our program. Kayla [Cooper] and Jessica [Tomasetti] made some clutch plays at key points throughout the game and our defense came up with big stops down the stretch. I'm really proud of the team's resilience and grit."
 
KEY STATS

• Graduate students Kayla Cooper and Jessica Tomasetti led scoring with 19 and 18 points, respectively. 
• Fellow graduate student Kaci Donovan followed with 11 points. 
• Tomasetti led off the glass with a team-high eight rebounds. 
• Cooper added two team-highs with four assists and three steals.
• With nine attempts from the field, Tomasetti scored eight times for a .889 field goal percentage.
• As a team, the Great Danes shot 58.3% from the field.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Great Danes were the first to put points on the board thanks to a field goal from Delanie Hill.
• UAlbany extended their lead by outscoring the Retrievers, 10-7, over the next five minutes. 
• Both teams traded points back-and-forth, but the Great Danes came out with a 17-13 lead to enter the second quarter. 
• UAlbany put up the initial four points to kick off the second quarter thanks to two layups by Hill and Lilly Phillips. 
• UMBC managed to cut their deficit to just two points over the next three minutes after outscoring the Great Danes, 8-2. 
• UAlbany held the Retrievers to just one field goal in the second half of the second quarter to go into halftime with the advantage, 29-23. 
• Trading baskets, the Great Danes gradually gained a nine-point lead at 6:33 before adding a six-point run to strengthen their lead, 45-33.
• In the last three minutes of the quarter, the Retrievers outscored UAlbany, 10-5, but the Great Danes remained on top, 50-43. 
• UMBC found a strong start and battled all the way back to tie the game at 55 with 4:38 remaining in the final quarter. 
• After their strong start, the Retrievers couldn't keep up and only put up five points to UAlbany's 13. 
• With their strong finish, the Great Danes took the win, 68-60, to clinch a share of the America East Regular Season Champion title and the top seed in the America East Championship Tournament.

 
NEXT: The Great Danes will end the regular season with Senior Day against NJIT on Saturday (Mar. 1).
 
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