As Annie Warren thrives, so do the Seawolves.
The senior guard notched 12 points on 4-for-10 shooting in her fifth-straight double-digit scoring effort to lead the Stony Brook women’s basketball team past the Albany Great Danes 58-47 on Saturday. The Seawolves (15-2, 6-1 AE) have won six straight, with Warren shooting at least .385 percent from the field and averaging 13.4 points in their last five.
“I really do think it’s just chemistry that happens on the court,” Warren said in a postgame press conference. “But also being aggressive too, looking for my shot, and when I have an open shot just taking it with confidence.”
As is often the case, Warren’s 3-point shooting ensured the game was basically over by halftime. She sank one in the beginning of the second quarter that gave the Seawolves a two-point lead they never surrendered and hit another with 11 seconds on the clock to give Stony Brook a 33-20 lead at the buzzer.
“I feel like it’s every game,” Warren said laughingly of her three 3-pointers. “My teammates, they set good screens. We execute the plays very well so that just gets me open shots, and I knock them down.”
The 13-point lead proved to be essential when Albany (11-6, 4-2 AE) opened the third quarter with eight unanswered points, but a quick 3-pointer by graduate forward Leighah-Amori Wool cut the comeback attempt short.
“[Albany] played harder than us,” head coach Ashley Langford said of the third quarter. “They beat us to every ball, they outrebounded us and there was a different level of intensity.”
Stony Brook’s defense allowed 15 points in the fourth quarter, a disappointment by their high standards, but they added four steals in seven minutes to kill any momentum Albany might have built.
With one minute remaining, junior guard Gigi Gonzalez hit a 3-pointer to restore an 11-point lead.
With the win, their seventh straight against Albany, the Seawolves sit atop the America East standings. NJIT’s recent loss to Vermont dropped the Highlanders to 5-2; Stony Brook plays NJIT at home on Feb. 5 after road trips to Vermont and Binghamton.
