By Chris Quartarone 

The Saint Anselm women’s basketball team left the court against Northeast-10 Conference foe UMass-Lowell positively jubilant. A last-second layup gave the locals a thrilling 61-60 victory on Jan. 4 and improved the Lady Hawks to 5-8 on the season.

Five losses have followed.

After a 72-56 setback to rival Southern New Hampshire University on Jan. 10, the second loss of the five-game skid, St. A coach Chris Leazier noticed plenty of worrisome issues.

“Their (SNHU) post play really hurt us,” he said.

In fact, SNHU outscored Saint Anselm in the paint, 36-18.

The Lady Penmen also won the points-off-turnovers battle, 20-9, and tallied more second-chance points 15-6.

“They just had more effort for loose balls,” said Leazier. “We got in foul trouble early in the game, and they were able to surge ahead. It’s hard to be patient when your behind.”

A bright spot for the Hawks has been senior forward and team co-captain Cassaundra Thorpe. She led her team with 14 points against SNHU.

Leazier said players like Thorpe; freshman forward Jennifer Gureckis, who had nine points and made two of three three-point attempts; and junior guard Meredith Amyot, who shot 4-of-5 from the field for nine points, have produced encouraging results.

Co-captain and guard Rachel Reilly also turned in a solid effort against SNHU with 10 points and four assists.

Leazier said one of the team’s goals is to get to the free-throw line often.

“We accomplished that (against the Lady Penmen), but it wasn’t enough,” he said

In fact, Saint Anselm took 30 charity shots, but only hit 19 attempts. SNHU, on the other hand, hit 18 of its 26 attempts.

“We’ll continue to try to improve and fix what’s wrong,” said Leazier, “and hopefully get back on track.”

The Lady Hawks couldn’t against NE-10 cellar-dweller Merrimack College on Tuesday, Jan. 22, losing 74-64.

League leader Assumption visits Saturday, Jan. 26. Tip-off is 1:30 p.m.