As others went home for the good part of a month for the holidays, the USM men’s and women’s basketball were back in Gorham after an abbreviated winter break to prepare for their annual holiday tournament trips.
The men’s team took their talents to Washington D.C. in the Catholic University Holiday Tournament, and the women’s team traveled to Los Angeles to compete in the Disneyland Classic.
In the Catholic University tournament, the Huskies opened with a solid 70-62 win over Rivier College of New Hampshire on New Years Day and advanced to the championship game the next day against the host team Catholic. They lost in a hard fought battle 79-77. Senior guard and Washington D.C. native Cortez Isaac fared well in his hometown, scoring 24 and 32 points in the two games while being named to the all-tournament team. Senior guard Otis Smith (Altamonte Springs, FL) led the Huskies on the boards in the first game with six, and junior forward Sean Bergeron (Kennebunk) pulled down six in the second game.
The women’s team squared off against Los Angeles based Occidental College in their first game of the tournament on Dec. 30, and faced another Los Angeles team in Chapman the next day.
In the first game, junior forward Courtney Cochran (Waite) led the way for the Huskies as she scored 17 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, and senior Kaylie DeMillo (Jay) contributed ten, but Occidental proved to be too much in the end for USM as they were beaten 52-48.
Against Chapman, Cochran came through again for USM as she turned in an impressive performance of 15 points and 15 rebounds to go along with seven blocks. Chapman’s effort also proved to be too much for the Huskies as it included three players in double figures — including a 19 point, 17 rebound game from senior center Brandi Hood — to help the Panthers earn a 61-49 win over USM.
Both teams came back from their trips to a full plate of games, with three of them coming against conference foes including UMass Dartmouth, Rhode Island College, and Eastern Connecticut State and one game against non-conference Husson University. The men’s and women’s teams each beat Husson at home on Jan. 5 with four players in double figures in the women’s game, and three players in double figures in the men’s game.
Over the next three games for the women’s team Cochran scored 43 points and pulled down 23 rebounds to help contribute to three important conference wins. Junior guard Renee Nicolas scored a career-high 26 points in a brilliant come-from-behind win against Eastern Connecticut on Jan. 15, and DeMillo reached a milestone when she scored her 1,000th career point as a Husky at Plymouth State on Jan. 19.
Since coming back from California, the women’s team has won five straight games and doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of slowing down.
After beating a tough Husson team by one point in their first game back in New England, the men’s team lost to annual LEC powerhouse UMass Dartmouth by ten in Gorham, earned a solid win against 2010 LEC champion Rhode Island College, and have lost two straight to Eastern Connecticut and Plymouth State.
Both teams have eight games remaining in the season, with seven of them coming against LEC teams before their conference tournaments begins on Tuesday, Feb. 22.