BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Carlee Cassidy showed flashes of being a dangerous scorer during the regular season for the University of Maryland-Baltimore County women’s basketball team. But the freshman guard couldn’t always display that shooter’s touch in only about 12 minutes a game.

Retrievers coach Phil Stern may rethink Cassidy’s spot in the rotation in the future following her performance in Sunday’s 48-46 victory over Hartford in America East Conference championship, which secured UMBC’s first-ever NCAA tournament bid. The 5-foot-9 Cassidy finished with a team-high 14 points, 11 of which came in the first half. And she connected on 4 of 6 three-point attempts, including one that gave UMBC a 23-20 lead with 5:51 left in the first half. The Retrievers never trailed for the remainder of the game.

“That’s why we recruited Carlee,” UMBC coach Phil Stern said. “She came up with big shot when we needed her to, and that’s what to expect to see from her over the next three years.”

The Retrievers (16-16) will face top-seeded Connecticut (29-3) at 9:30 p.m. Sunday in a first-round NCAA game in the Fresno Region. The game will be played at the Harford Civic Center in Hartford, Conn.

Cassidy, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., appeared in 29 games this season, averaged 4.6 points and 1.3 rebounds and shot just 31.2 percent from the field. She said getting used to playing in college was an adjustment for her. She came to UMBC after averaging 24.7 points, 8.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 3.2 steals during her senior year at Westhill (N.Y.) High.

“It took some time to get used to the offense and the college game in general,” Cassidy said. “Sometimes, that meant I got to play a lot, and other times, it meant I didn’t play at all.”

UMBC senior forward Shari Rohde said getting additional contributions from players like Cassidy goes a long way toward improving the team’s offense and taking some of the scoring load off her. Rohde averages a team-high 13.6 points a game for the Retrievers.

The Cassidy file

» Age: 18

» Height: 5-foot-9

» Position: Guard

» Hometown: Syracuse, N.Y.

» Did you know? Cassidy led UMBC in scoring four times this season, including finishing with a career-best 17 points Nov. 14 against Coppin State and Jan. 20 against New Hampshire … She finished her high-school career with 2,124 points to become New York state’s Section III (Central New York) all-time leading scorer.