TROY — Championship experience paid off for the University at Albany women’s basketball team in its quarterfinal win over UMass Lowell on Wednesday night.
In a close-fought game, the No. 2 Great Danes (21-10) stayed calm, eventually pulling away in the fourth quarter for a 59-51 victory at Hudson Valley Community College.
“We trust in each other so much and we know that we have each other’s backs, so even when the opponent gets in a run or gets closer to us, we always know that we just need to come back together and we’re fine. We never feel frantic or pressed in those situations,” fifth-year guard Ellen Hahne said.
The No. 7 River Hawks (5-22) kept pace with the Great Danes and held a two-point lead with a minute left in the second quarter before junior guard Kayla Cooper made a pair of free throws to tie it up heading into halftime.
“We knew that we were missing some shots that we usually make and we aren’t really getting all the stops that we might want to, but it was still a tie game so we felt pretty calm,” Hahne said.
The back-and-forth action continued after halftime: UAlbany started the third quarter with a 5-0 run to take their biggest lead of the game, and UMass Lowell answered with eight straight points to lead by three.
When UAlbany built another slim lead, sophomore forward Amaya Dowdy erased it with an offensive rebound — one of her seven on the night — and a three-point play.
“I think rebounding was super huge for us. As mostly everybody in the league knows, our game has a lot to do with transition, and if we don’t rebound and if we don’t get stops we can’t get out and run in transition,” UMass Lowell coach Denise King said.
UAlbany senior guard Grace Heeps laid out for a loose ball and got it to senior forward Helene Haegerstrand for a turnaround jumper, and Cooper…
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