In the face of Vermont’s very aggressive defense, the women’s basketball team dropped their eighth game in a row. The Seawolves (4-18, 1-8 AE) lost to the Catamounts (9-13, 3-6 AE), 63-36, this past Saturday at Pritchard Gymnasium.
Vermont opened with a jump shot by Tierra Shumpert, who led the Catamounts with 17 points. Although the Seawolves responded quickly with a jumper of their own from senior Destiny Jacobs (Glen Burnie, Md.), Vermont’s Niki Taylor scored to give the Catamounts the lead, which they would keep for the remainder of the game.
Despite SBU’s Sam Landers (Springfield, VA) and Kellie Krueger (Wilsonville, Ore.) combining for 20 points, it wasn’t enough to beat Vermont. The Catamounts had four players in double-figures, and two of them, Kayla Burchill (14 points, 10 rebounds) and Taylor (12 points, 11 rebounds), recorded double-doubles.
“They were really aggressive on the defensive side and it kind of pushed us back a bit,” said head coach Beth O’Boyle. “Then they were hitting shots and fed off of that.”
Stony Brook struggled to hold onto the ball on offense, turning it over 10 times in the first half alone. Weak ball-handling and missed opportunities made the score 30-16 halftime.
“We’ve struggled all year long to score and I think Vermont did a really good job taking advantage of that,” O’Boyle said. “[It’s] tough putting that much pressure on our defense when there’s that many turnovers.”
The Seawolves opened the second half by cutting the deficit to 10, with freshman Kreuger banking two foul shots and a jumper within the first minute. However, that’s the closest they would get, as Vermont scored seven points and quickly pulled away.
Stony Brook would go on to end the game with 19 turnovers to the Catamounts 17. Jacobs led the Seawolves on the defensive side with 5 rebounds, but Vermont out-rebounded the Seawolves 52-28 overall.
Junior Landers and Vermont’s Taylor were named America East player of the game for their respective teams.
Coach O’Boyle seemed defeated about her team’s abysmal performance.
“We just need to bounce back and get ready for Binghamton on Wednesday,” she said.
