The Stony Brook women’s basketball team dropped two games in the final week of the regular season, the last games before the America East conference tournament next weekend.
In a battle fit only for a Seawolves Senior Night, the team was able to fuel a late game rally after being down double digits in the second half, bringing it within two points with less than a minute in the game.
Ultimately, however, Stony Brook was unable to come away with a victory, despite the thrilling conclusion as it fell to the Hartford Hawks, 49-42, on Wednesday night in Pritchard Gymnasium.
“Tremendous effort all around tonight,” head coach Beth O’Boyle said. “It was really nice to see everyone dig down and give it their best efforts tonight. Tamiel (Murray) really commanded our offense today, Whitney (Davis) was aggressive and hit some big shots, Misha (Horsey) also hit some needed shots and Destiny (Jacobs) came up big on the glass for us.”
Senior Whitney Davis led the Seawolves with 12 points in another double-digit scoring performance in which she was able to elude numerous defenders to create open shots for herself. Freshman Kellie Krueger and junior Jessica Previlon chipped in off the bench with seven points and rebounds and eight points and six rebounds, respectively.
The Seawolves would not allow Hartford to dictate the pace from the start as both teams played to a tie game for nearly the first 10 minutes of the contest. Jessica Previlon’s free throw gave Stony Brook the 9-8 lead midway through the first half.
Two straight three-pointers from Hartford’s Alex Hall, who finished with a game high 19
points, put the Hawks up by six points. Stony Brook’s freshman Kelly Krueger wouldn’t allow that to continue any longer when she was able to get two of her eight points with a jump shot, cutting the lead to just three at 14-11.
After a Horsey jump-shot, the Hawks responded by scoring six of the next eight points to take a 20-15 lead on the Seawolves with time running out in the first half.
Attempting to establish a paint presence, both Davis and Jacobs respond for Stony Brook with back-to-back free throw conversions to cut the deficit to just three points at halftime, 22-19.
Hartford opened the second half by scoring the first five points as the Seawolves struggled to convert from the floor.
Two straight scoring possessions for the Seawolves closed the gap to within four. However, the Hawks answered every chance they could get and pushed the lead to 10.
A couple driving layups by Previlon and Stony Brook’s first three-pointer of the game from freshman Natalie Myers were instrumental in a 7-0 run that cut the Hartford lead to two points with 35 seconds remaining in the game.
“(The rally) was really a testament to the team,” O’Boyle said. “We’ve talked about grinding out games and to keep making the extra play and they played really hard to close the gap.”
Unfortunately for the Seawolves, a costly foul put them over the limit, and the Hawks would capitalize to stretch the lead to three. Hartford’s Alex Hall gave the Seawolves a final chance to finish the comeback with a missed free throw, but the ball skipped off the rim and into Nikkia Smith’s hands.
A few Hawks free throws later pushed the margin and with no time left in the game, the Seawolves fell, 49-42.
Before the game, the four Seawolf seniors in their final home game were honored: Davis, Jacobs, Horsey and Murray.
On Saturday, Stony Brook headed north to take on the University of Maine Black Bears, where they would go on to trade baskets back and forth throughout the game, but run out of gas during the stretch and fall, 45-40.
Tamiel Murray led the Stony Brook offense with eight points, seven rebounds and five assists, while Kellie Krueger had eight points and four rebounds and Jessica Previlon chipped in with seven points and nine rebounds for the Seawolves.
The Seawolves offense had it going early, opening up a 5-0 lead on the Black Bears to start the first half, with buckets from Krueger and Destiny Jacobs.
Maine was able to respond to Stony Brook’s early intensity with 10 straight points of their own to push a five point lead upon the Seawolves midway through the first half.
Whitney Davis was able to knock down a jump shot with 5:22 remaining in the half to give the Seawolves the lead once again at 15-14.
Stony Brook narrowly outplayed the Black Bears to go into halftime leading by just two at 21-19.
Maine stormed back yet again in the second half to overtake the Seawolves’ lead at 30-29 with 10 minutes to go in the half.
Stony Brook then responded to open up with a rapid 10-2 scoring run in just under four minutes on Maine to take the lead by seven, 39-32.
The Seawolves clinged to a five point advantage over Maine for the next four minutes playing good defense until the Black Bears were able to break open an 11-0 run over the last four minutes and rally to a come from behind victory over Stony Brook.
Thursday, March 1 marks the opening day of the America East Championships in West Hartford, Conn. The Seawolves will be there to compete against a team that is to be determined in a tournament that will end a season of struggle for Stony Brook.
