Defense has fueled UAlbany basketball's recent surge

Albany

The streak, modest as it is, has the attention of the University at Albany basketball team, but it's not necessarily its three consecutive victories.

In each of their past four games, the Great Danes have held opponents to under 40 percent shooting. Defense, as coaches will tell you, travels well, which could benefit UAlbany as it tackles two of its longer road trips of the America East Conference season.

The Danes (9-8, 2-0) are in Durham, N.H., for a Wednesday night game against New Hampshire, then travel to Stony Brook on Saturday night.

“If we want to win, we’ll have to do that," sophomore guard Antonio Rizzuto said. "That’s what we’ve been stressing before the season started and up until now. Defense first, and the rest of the game is going to come.”

Since allowing St. John's to shoot 51 percent Dec. 18 in a 85-57 blowout loss, UAlbany has held its past four opponents to under 40 percent: Monmouth (35.8), Columbia (39.3), Binghamton (33.8) and Maine (39.0). All were on the road except for Maine.

“You’re going to have your notes when you score or don’t score," freshman forward Trey Hutcheson said. "Consistency on defense, that takes everybody on the court, everybody on the bench, communication. It has to be a thing for us every single night if we want to win games.”

The only thing that frustrates coach Will Brown, who prioritizes defense, is that the percentage could be hire except for "the self-inflicted, careless turnovers — the live-ball ones that lead to uncontested layups."

“Our half-court defense has been rock-solid," he said. "When we’ve been able to set it, it’s been good enough to win most games. If we can do a better job on the glass and do a better job of valuing the ball on offense, that number could go down even...