UAlbany WBB Grabs America East Regluar Season Title

Enve

2025-03-10

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

“Its definitely gratifying but right now we are only co champions and as coach Mullen says she definitely does not like to share and neither do me and Kayla so I think we are just gonna finish business on Saturday, so we can be the one seed and total champions”

UAlbany WBB Guard Jessica Tomasetti

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Written By Azarr Johnson

or Thursday night’s game, there was a lot at stake to play for both teams, with two games left on the schedule. UMBC was coming into the game looking to repeat their last outcome with the Great Danes, in which they defeated them 71-59. That game was more than just a victory, it turned around UMBC season, the Retrievers were 0-4 at that point in the conference and with that victory they never looked back, as they have gone 6-3 since and fifth place in the conference. With the seeding being so tight in the middle of the pack, every game counts. For the UAlbany Great Danes they had even bigger stakes on the line as they were looking to wrap up the number one seed/home court for the American east Playoff and to also get revenge on one of their only two losses in the conference which put them in this position.

Cooper, and Tomasetti were both leading the way with their play on both sides of the court, not to mention, they had not missed a shot all period, going 6-6, to build that lead and finish the period leading 50-43. UMBC did not go down without a fight as though they got stops and outscored the Great Danes 10-5 in the fourth period, forcing Albany to call a timeout and regroup again. It was not only the defense, but the play of Jayden Walker who scored six of UMBC ten points and led the team with seventeen and was now only trailing by two (55-53). When play resumed the Retrievers tied the game a few seconds later, but that was it, as time winded down, the usual suspects stepped up in the end to close the game. Kaci Donovan hit two free throws to give Albany a 60-56 lead followed by Jessica Tomasetti hitting a jumper with less than a minute to increase the lead to six (64-58) and of course Kayla Cooper who led the team with nineteen, hit two free throws at the end to seal the victory (68-60).

With the victory, the Great Danes not only won/share the regular season title, they also wrapped up the number one seed throughout the American east conference playoffs, for the first time since 2017.