By Nate Owen

Still in search of its first win of the season, the women’s basketball team traveled to Massachusetts last Saturday and hosted George Mason last night in its first Colonial Athletic Association match-up of the season.

Saturday’s game at UMass (7-1, 0-0 Atlantic 10) was a double blow for the Huskies (0-6, 0-1 CAA), as they dropped the game 58-50 and lost CAA assists leader and senior captain Jody Burrows for the season with a torn ACL. Burrows has never redshirted and as of press time, it was not certain if she will play next year.

Junior guard Lucia Pablos played the majority of the game in place of Burrows, netting eight points, two assists and one steal.

Pablos, starting at point guard, will replace Burrows, and freshman Kateema McLean will see increased time at the helm of the offense.

Sophomore guard Ashlee Feldman led the Huskies in scoring with 12 points, and junior guard Shaleyse Smallwood finished with nine points, five dimes and a team-leading eight rebounds.

UMass junior guard Pam Rosanio led all scorers with 22 points.

The Huskies struggled in the paint, as the Minutewomen out-rebounded them 41-24.

The Huskies tied the game at 37 at 12:51 in the second half, but UMass answered with a 6-0 run, and the Huskies couldn’t respond.

Burrows was only able to watch Tuesday as George Mason marched into Solomon Court and shredded the Husky defense in the first half. The Patriots shot 63 percent (19-30), before halftime. The Huskies, by comparison, shot 32 percent (9-28), and found themselves trailing 44-24 at halftime.

Northeastern came out in the second half with renewed energy, led by Smallwood, who helped catalyze the defense and scored nine of her 15 points in the second half.

A layup by junior forward Stefanie Hodell cut the Patriots’ lead to 60-59 with 1:46 left. But the Huskies couldn’t get any closer, and George Mason (3-2, 1-0 CAA) held on for a 67-61 win.

Pablos finished with 11 points on 3-3 from beyond the arc and freshman forward Kim Carr scored 10 to go along with eight boards.

For the Patriots, junior guard Casey Quigley had 14 points.

“In the first half, we put ourselves in a hole. That’s not how you play basketball,” said head coach Danyia La-Force Mann. “[We] need two halves of intensity. [In] crunch time we are making too many crucial mistakes. [We] need to apply mental toughness at the end of games.”