By Chris Tramontozzi, News Correspondent

The women’s basketball team is 4-2 and off to its best start since the 2003-04 season.
The Huskies are 3-1 in their last four games and have only one loss since falling 105-35 to No. 1 Connecticut Nov. 14.
Head coach Daynia La-Force Mann credits this surge to post-UConn aggression.
‘We just felt we needed to prove to everyone it wasn’t a demoralizing loss to us as basketball players or as a program but an opportunity to learn from the best,’ La-Force Mann said.
The Huskies showed this aggression in their 84-57 win over Rhode Island Nov. 21. After a 3-point basket by sophomore guard Brittany Wilson made it 3-2, the team went on a 20-4 run to start the game. Once Northeastern gained the lead it kept the pressure on, and so did Wilson, who led the team with 19 points.
Northeastern took an 11-point lead into halftime. In the second half the team got the lead up to 17 before Rhode Island clawed its way back to within seven. The Huskies, however, were not phased by this comeback and were able to get the lead back to more than 20 when it held Rhode Island scoreless for 5:03 in the half.
The Huskies hit more than 50 percent of their shots with a total of eight 3-pointers. Four Huskies scored in double-digits.
La-Force Mann said the game showed the Huskies could score from all over the court.
‘We have a lot of scorers in this program that are both effective at the 3-point line and in the paint,’ she said.
The next game, at Boston University Nov. 24, was a tale of two halves for the Huskies.
At the end of the first half the Huskies, who shot a poor 35 percent from the field, were down 50-27 to the Terriers. However, Northeastern went on a 16-7 run in the second half and trimmed the lead to eight with a little over four minutes remaining. The Huskies got the lead down to four, led by sophomore guard Kashaia Cannon, who had 17 points and was tied for the team lead in scoring with sophomore guard Jamie Conroy. Despite the Huskies’ best efforts, the Terriers won 83-78.
La-Force Mann said she did not take the loss too hard.
‘We have to fight through adversity,’ La-Force Mann said. ‘We had our scorers in foul trouble we just wanted to prove to BU that we were a good team ‘hellip; despite the score at the end of the game, we proved that we are a good team and I’m proud of them and their effort in the second half.’
The next game, Nov. 28 against Army, was different for the Huskies. They came out strong in the first half, putting up a lead of 28 points. The Huskies won 77-45, led once again by Wilson, who had 13 points on four of nine shooting and had two 3-pointers.
La-Force Mann said she saw a very different team in the first half of this game compared with the BU game.
‘Our defense in the Army game really helped ignite our offense,’ La-Force Mann said. ‘We were getting steals ‘hellip; forcing them to take bad shots which turned into great offensive opportunities for us.’
The Huskies held Army to 20 percent shooting in the first half, 33.3 percent on the game. NU also made nine 3-point shots to Army’s five.
In contrast to the relatively easy win over Army, the Huskies had a close battle with the University of Massachusetts’-Amherst yesterday afternoon. NU went into the half up eight but shot a poor 33.7 percent. Wilson had 15 points in the half.
The Huskies were able to keep UMass, which staged a late comeback and got as close as four within the final five minutes of the game, from taking the lead. Strong free throw shooting helped, as NU shot 12 of 14 from the line to win 73-64.
Wilson led all scorers with 23 points. It was a career-high for her as she now leads the team in scoring through the first six games.
Wilson said two factors will allow the team to continue playing well.
‘Practice and mental toughness,’ Wilson said. ‘We try to go hard in every practice so in the game times we know what to do. We have to stay focused because we have certain goals we want to achieve this year.’
The squad’s next game is at Holy Cross Saturday at 12:30 p.m.