BALTIMORE - With the #AEHoops playoffs knocking on the door, the UMBC women's basketball team picked up a big 54-44 win over the UAlbany Great Danes on Wednesday evening. The win moves the Retrievers to 9-15 overall on the year and 5-8 in America East play. The Great Danes fall to 9-17 on the season and 5-8 in conference contests. 

A trio of Retrievers hit the double-digit mark on the evening, led by senior Te'yJah Oliver (Clinton, Md./Riverdale Baptist), who put up 14 points to go along with five rebounds. Senior Lucrezia Costa (Rome, Italy) set a new season-high with 11 points (4-9 FG) and almost picked up a double-double with eight rebounds. Junior Janee'a Summers (Bound Brook, N.J.) was a perfect 4-4 from the free throw line, aiding in her 10-point night. Jen Gast (Baltimore, Md./Catonsville) brought down 10 rebounds, her third-straight game with 10+ while adding eight points on the night.

For the third-straight game, the Retrievers have won the battle of the boards with a margin of 10 or more, outrebounding the Great Danes, 46-33; against UMass Lowell, UMBC won the rebound margin +20 (53-33) and against New Hampshire, +15 (43-28).

The first quarter was slow as the teams were locked at a 4-4 tie by the media timeout at 4:11. Outside of the timeout, Summers and O'lesheya Braxton (Paterson, N.J.) gave UMBC an 8-4 lead with 3:17 to play, but UAlbany ended the quarter on a 7-2 run to take its final lead of the game at 11-10.

UMBC opened the second quarter on a 13-0 run to take a 23-11 lead before UAlbany scored its lone basket of the period, a three-pointer, to cut the Retriever advantage down to 23-14. Freshman Lyric Swann (Elkridge, Md./Long Reach) would hit a buzzer-beating jump shot to send the Retrievers into the locker rooms with a 25-14 advantage. UAlbany shot 7.7 percent (1-13) in the second quarter, the lowest shooting percentage by an opponent this season; UMBC held Stony Brook to 10 percent (1-10) back in January. 

In the third quarter, Costa and Summers were a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line as they combined for 12 of UMBC's 20 points in the period to help the Retrievers take a 45-28 lead into the fourth quarter. The Great Danes cut the advantage down to 11, 33-22, with 5:18 to play, but the Retrievers used a small 6-0 spurt to extend the lead back out to 17. 

In the final quarter of the game,  UMBC brought their lead out to a game-high of 20, 50-30, with 6:37 to go before UAlbany used a 7-0 run to cut into UMBC's lead, 50-37. Gast hit a free throw to bring the lead back out to 14 with 3:28 to go, but the Great Danes got the lead back down to nine, 51-42, the closest it had been since the 47-second mark of the second quarter. Down the stretch, Oliver and Costa made free throws to bring the Retrievers back up to a 12-point lead, 54-42; the Great Danes hit the final layup of the game as the clock ran out for the 54-44 final.

As a whole, the team shot 33.9 percent (19-56) from the floor and 73.7 percent (14-19) from the free throw line. 

The Retrievers will remain home, one of their final two home games of the 2019-20 regular season, as they host the Vermont Catamounts on Saturday, February 22. The opening tip is scheduled for 1 p.m.