After losing eight of its final 10 regular season contests, the Stony Brook women’s basketball team enters the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) playoffs on an upward trend.
The Seawolves endured a massive roster shift this past offseason. Despite winning the 2023-2024 CAA regular season championship and making it to the conference finals, Stony Brook entered this season with a new head coach and new faces on the roster. It quickly became clear that it would be a rebuilding season for the Seawolves, as they finished 9th in the 2024-2025 CAA women’s basketball preseason poll — voted by the 14 coaches in the league.
Under first-year head coach Joy McCorvey, the Seawolves finished with an overall record of 12-17 and went 7-11 in conference play, slotting in as the No. 12 seed — below the initial prediction prior to the season. Stony Brook will face the No. 13 seed Hampton Pirates on Wednesday at CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C. Opening tip-off is set for 2 p.m.
The Pirates narrowly defeated the Seawolves on Valentine’s Day, ending Stony Brook’s seven-game winning streak. This loss against Hampton sent the Seawolves spiraling towards the latter half of the season, beginning a six-game skid and before Stony Brook ended their season on a high note with a win against Drexel.
To get back to where they were last year, the Seawolves will look to make the Pirates walk the plank and initiate a battle with the No. 5 Monmouth Hawks, to whom they lost to during the losing streak.
The Seawolves average 58.3 points per game, which marks them as the fourth-worst offense in the league. Guard Zaida Gonzalez will be looking to power Stony Brook’s scoring effort, as her 16.3 points per game ranked fourth in the CAA. Gonzalez is one of the few returning players from last year’s roster, and while her three-point shooting ability has not been up to par — shooting just 24.8% from deep — she has excelled from the charity stripe, shooting 71.8%.
In large part thanks to Gonzalez, the team as a whole shot 70.1% from the free-throw line in the regular season — the fifth-best mark in the league. Stony Brook does not have much working for it otherwise offensively, as it ranks 10th in field-goal shooting (.379) but has turned the ball over the third-fewest times in the CAA.
Fellow guard Breauna Ware will complement Gonzalez’s scoring prowess, as her 14.6 points per game are eighth in the conference. Ware has posted a .434/.354/.718 triple slash, as she facilitated the offense with her 2.1 assists per game. As a redshirt sophomore, Ware has been an anchor on defense, looking to gain extra possessions for Stony Brook with her team-leading 2.1 steals per game.
Forward Shamarla King is the third-leading scorer on the team with her 9.5 points per game on a .397/.258/.732 shooting line. The six-foot forward provides physicality in the paint for an undersized Seawolves with her leading 6.9 rebounds per game. King is coming off a 19-point performance against Towson as she will look to continue her hot streak for Stony Brook.
If King does not perform up to her averages, the Seawolves’ frontcourt depth is relatively empty. Coming off the bench, forward Dallysshya Moreno is averaging 3.6 points per game on 44.9% shooting, and fellow forward Elizabeth Field rarely sees action on the court with a measly 1.4 points per game. Starting forward Lauren Filien plays the most minutes at the forward position for Stony Brook, but she is rather ineffective offensively, averaging just 3.3 points per game on 33.1% shooting from the floor. However, Filien has brought down the second-most boards of any Seawolf with 149 (5.3 per game).
Offensively, Stony Brook looks to score simply, as the team struggles in the passing game with just 8.90 assists per game — the worst rate in the league.
With a lackluster offense, the Seawolves’ identity is their physical defense, holding opposing teams to 61 points per game, which is the fifth-fewest in the conference. McCorvey prides herself on having the team play tough on the defensive end.
“We want to pride ourselves on the defensive end first and foremost,” McCorvey said in an interview with The Statesman prior to the start of the season. “We want to be gritty. We want to generate tips and deflections and really disrupt on the defensive end.
Despite Stony Brook’s ability to hold teams to a low scoring output, it has allowed opponents to shoot 40.6% from the field, the fourth-worst rate in the league. However, opposing teams are having difficulty finding the same success from three-point range. The Seawolves held opponents to 25.8% shooting from downtown — the best rate in the conference.
As for rebounding, Stony Brook does a great job of providing itself second-chance opportunities with 37.5 rebounds per game, coming in sixth in the CAA. King certainly contributes to the Seawolves’ rebounding success, as does guard Janay Brantley. Her six-foot frame gives her a size advantage over most other guards in the league, and her ability to grab 5.3 rebounds per game matches Filien.
The lack of size on the frontcourt shows in the Seawolves’ inability to get steals and blocks as they are 12th in both categories, averaging 2.34 and 5.59, respectively. Brantley’s size works in her favor with her team-best 1.4 steals per game, followed closely by Ware. Fillen is the only additional player on the roster to average over a single block per game.
Guard Chloe Oliver rounds out the starting five, but her contributions are few and far between, with just 3.6 points per game. However, Oliver did not appear in Stony Brook’s regular season finale.
With the new-looked team, the Seawolves will look to claim their first-ever CAA Championship as a more under-the-radar club. After the success of last year’s team, McCorvey’s goal for the season has been success even from the outset of fall workouts.
“We definitely dealt with some departures last year whether to the portal or graduation,” McCorvey said. “Our expectations, though, have stayed the same. We want to continue to win at a high level. We are searching for another championship and that starts with our leaders.”
George Caratzas also contributed reporting.
