UMBC coach Phil Stern had no excuses after his team's 65-60 loss to visiting Mount St. Mary's last night in a Northeast Conference women's game.
"This one's on me," Stern said quietly a few minutes after the Retrievers' fourth straight loss. "Our kids fought as hard as they have [all season], but I blew it. I blew it. I got a 'T' with 24 seconds left."
The game was tied at 58 when Stern was hit with the technical foul after a UMBC foul on Mount St. Mary's guard Adrienne Harris, who hit three of the four free throws for a 61-58 lead.
UMBC's Jessie Brown made a bank shot with 11.4 seconds left to make it 61-60. Ravilia Alexander stretched the Mount's lead to three with two free throws a second later. Christine Catalanotto then tried to tie it for UMBC (2-4, 0-1), but her three-point shot fell short with five seconds left.
The Mount's Beth Foster then sealed the victory by hitting two free throws with 2.9 seconds remaining.
The Retrievers wasted several chances to take charge of the game. Guard Jessie Brown made eight of 12 from the field for a team-high 20 points, center Lara Seamon had a double double with 16 points and 12 rebounds and forward Millette Green had 15 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
But UMBC missed a number of shots from inside 15 feet that would have stretched some leads. A tough zone defense helped the Retrievers stay close. Mount St. Mary's made 10 three-pointers, but the Retrievers eventually slowed the visitors inside and out.
The Mount made only four baskets in the final 10 minutes, and UMBC kept hanging around.
"We had good balance on [defense] both [inside and out]," Seamon said.
The Retrievers slowed hot-shooting Myriam Baccouche (20 points, though only two in the final 14 minutes) and Beth Foster (12 points). But Harris kept hurting UMBC.
Harris had a team-high 21.5-point average coming into the game, but scored just two points in the first half. However, the point guard sparked Mount St. Mary's (2-3, 1-0) in the second half, scoring 11 of her 13 points and creating numerous scoring chances when coach Vanessa Blair moved her to shooting guard with about 10 minutes remaining.
Harris often drove the baseline and drew fouls or made good passes. She sank five of six free throws, including the big ones after Stern's technical, and helped the Mount score eight of the game's final 10 points.
"That's the thing you work on free throws for," Harris said. "Every big player wants that shot."
MOUNT ST. MARY'S - Baccouche 7-17 0-0 20, Alexander 3-6 3-4 9, Foster 4-6 4-10 12, Rashid 2-10 2-2 8, Harris 3-9 5-6 13, Simms 0-1 0-0 0, Wilke 1-2 1-1 3, Hegge 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-51 15-23 65. UMBC - Green 6-18 3-5 15, Voss 1-4 0-0 2, Seamon 7-11 0-0 16, Catalanotto 2-11 1-2 7, J.Brown 8-12 1-1 20, M.Brown 0-0 0-0 0, Goncharova 0-1 0-0 0, Coll 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-58 5-8 60. Totals 24-58 5-8 60. Halftime - 24-24. 3-point goals- MSM 10-31 (Baccouche 6-14, Alexander 0-2, Rashid 2-9, Harris 2-6), UMBC 7-18 (Seamon 2-3, Catalanotto 2-7, J.Brown 3-7, Goncharova 0-1. Rebounds- MST 34 (Baccouche, Foster 7), UMBC 39 (Seamon 12). Assists-MST 13 (Harris 6), UMBC 16 (Green, Voss, J.Brown 4). A-323.