Despite facing the second worst overall and defensive team in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), all while carrying a seven-game winning streak at Stony Brook Arena, the Stony Brook women’s basketball team’s offense failed to show up for a second straight contest in a stunning loss.
Before the eyes of a relatively empty crowd — even by Stony Brook Arena standards — due to a Friday noon start, the Seawolves (12-11, 7-5 CAA) hosted the Hampton Pirates (5-17, 1-10 CAA). Looking to improve to 4-0 all-time against the Pirates, Stony Brook instead suffered a 59-57 defeat, posting a rough .308/.250/.840 shooting line in the process.
With guards Janay Brantley and Chloe Oliver out with injuries, guards Breauna Ware and Zaida Gonzalez — who played 37 and 39 minutes out of a possible 40, respectively — were tasked with carrying most of the Seawolves’ offensive load. However, the pair struggled on Friday, combining to shoot 8-for-32 from the field and committing eight turnovers, with the former accounting for seven of those.
“It hurt our depth,” head coach Joy McCorvey said in a postgame press conference. “We were short, that’s two guards. We couldn’t get a good rotation in that guard spot. The depth and having to play more minutes than normal, it hurt us tonight. But that’s no excuse. We had chances, we had opportunities to get stops and we did not.”
Following a first half packed with ebbs and flows for both sides, Hampton — who led 26-25 at the halftime break — took a firmer grasp of the contest in the third quarter. It displayed lockdown defense, prohibiting Stony Brook from finding open looks en route to a four-point advantage heading into the final frame.
In the fourth period, the Pirates offense also came to life. They exhibited great ball movement, consistently finding the open women, whether on the perimeter or under the basket. Hampton started the quarter by converting five of its first nine shots, helping it build an eight-point lead — tied for its largest margin of the afternoon — with 3:52 remaining in the affair.
“We gave up some big possessions on defense down the stretch,” McCorvey said. “A same-side, corner-kick three, an offensive rebound that led to an and-one, a dump down pass where we didn’t rotate defensively. We weren’t on a string defensively and we allowed two wide-open layups because our rotation defense wasn’t where it needed to be.”
Despite a significant margin in offensive cohesion between the teams, the Seawolves found themselves still having a shot at victory late — primarily due to abysmal free throw shooting from the Pirates. Overall, Hampton went 10-for-25 (40.0%) from the charity stripe on Friday, which, still, was not its worst mark of the season.
With 29 seconds left to play, Stony Brook inbounded under the Pirates’ basket down 58-54. Gonzalez received the ball in the left corner and dribbled towards the basket. After Hampton guard Le’Asia Foreman rotated to double the Seawolves’ star on the low post, Gonzalez found an open forward Shamarla King around the restricted area. Hampton guard Tyra Kennedy reached for the pass but inadvertently fouled King, who also made the layup, earning a three-point play opportunity, which she capitalized on to make it a one-point contest.
Thereafter, the Pirates’ stumbles from the line continued, as Hampton guard Jasha Clinton split a trip to the stripe, giving Stony Brook a chance to tie the affair with a field goal from inside the arc or two free throw makes.
However, after the Seawolves called a timeout, Ware committed a costly mistake. After catching the inbound pass, Ware navigated from the top of the key to the left elbow in a hurry. Her speed — typically a weapon — hindered Stony Brook’s point guard in this instance, as she dribbled the ball off her right foot and out of bounds with 17 ticks remaining.
Nonetheless, the Seawolves got another shot to tie the game while being down two just a second later, as forward Lauren Filien forced a jump ball with Hampton guard Tiani Abrams from the inbound, favoring Stony Brook as the possession arrow pointed its way.
Still, though, the hosts could not come through in the clutch. After being doubled in the all-important possession, Gonzalez, often the Seawolves’ closer, was forced to pass the opportunity to level the game off. She found Filien on the right low post, who went long on an attempt, putting an end to Stony Brook’s undefeated conference home record.
This loss was only the Seawolves’ third all-time, head-to-head defeat against Hampton in any sport. Previously, they lost to the Pirates in softball in 2023 and women’s volleyball in 2014.
Stony Brook’s 30.8% overall shooting was its fourth-worse number of the 2024-25 campaign.
“Their physicality definitely disrupted us,” McCorvey said. “You watch any of their games, they make it ugly. Doesn’t matter which team they’re playing. Their stats say one thing, but if you watch games, they make every game ugly because they are physical and they are scrappy. And it hurt our offense tonight. I didn’t think we did a great job of finding others, we were trying to do too much on our own and play too much one-on-one.”
The Seawolves turned the ball over 12 times. Conversely, Hampton committed nine giveaways to go along with a .400/.278/.400 triple slash.
King was Stony Brook’s top performer on the offensive end, tallying 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting. She made all seven of her attempts from the charity stripe and brought down six rebounds.
For the Pirates, Foreman led the way with 13 points on 4-of-6 efficiency and 5-for-5 from the line off the bench.
The Seawolves will also be without Brantley — who is expected to return to the court next week — and Oliver — who was wearing a walking boot on her left leg and does not have a return timeline — for their next contest, which will take place on Sunday. Then, Stony Brook will challenge the Towson Tigers in Maryland. The Tigers are 7-16 and 5-7 in CAA play this season following a 63-51 win over Hofstra. Opening tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.
