Traveling on the first possession and having one of the team’s leaders in foul trouble within the opening minutes may not be ideal, but the Stony Brook Women’s Basketball team showed their characteristic fight and tenacity Friday night.
In a tense game to open the season, the Stony Brook Seawolves toppled the New Jersey Institute of Technology 50-44 in front of a tremendous crowd of 1,630 at Pritchard Gymnasium. With pre-season all-conference pick Sabre Proctor leading the charge, a tight game turned into a dramatic win for Coach Beth O’Boyle’s 1-0 team.
Picking up right where she left off last season, the junior Proctor dominated the paint with 18 points, bullying her way around down low, forcing the defense into tough positions, getting herself to the charity stripe for 11 free throws. Coach O’Boyle said, “Sabre had such a tremendous game for us,” as she not only put the ball in the basket, but hit the boards as well with eight rebounds, four of which were on the offensive side of the ball.
Box scores tend to tell the story of many games in any sport, and it was no different in this one.
Twenty-one offensive boards for Stony Brook, six for NJIT. Wipe your eyes and look at it again: 21 offensive rebounds for the Seawolves. O’Boyle said, “I think it was the key stat in the game. We told them before we started the game that it was going to be a battle of the boards, and your 21 offensive rebounds is a huge number.”
The aggressiveness on the offensive side did not take long to come to the forefront, as sophomore Brittany Snow took charge on the second possession of the game, dishing a board off to fellow forward Proctor for an easy layup.
Snow got herself into early foul trouble on a couple of disputable calls, warranting an early rest and giving freshman Elizabeth Manner a chance to get into her first college game, making the most out of her opportunity. The 6-foot-1-inch forward was stout defensively, keeping the NJIT post play from ever strongly developing while also being a presence to deter the opponent’s elusive point guard from penetrating the paint.
Without a doubt, the most timely Seawolf was America East Player of the Game Chikilra Goodman. The senior guard matched NJIT whenever they would gain a slight lead in the second half, with a huge three to tie the game at 39 and kill the momentum with seven minutes left in the game.
Stony Brook was excited for this game to open the campaign. “It feels good. We work hard as a team through the whole summer to prepare for the first game, and it just felt great to be back on the floor again,” said Goodman.
Toughing out an opening wave from NJIT in which the Highlanders jumped out to an early seven point lead, Goodman said, “As a team we just keep each other going, keep the momentum going, don’t let anyone on the team get down, and when we keep each other going everything else just falls into place.”
Stony Brook finally seized control of the contest with the clock winding down, Goodman sealed it with a perfectly timed steal, ending any hope NJIT had. Her near double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds on a solid six for 10 shooting night helped pace the team to the win.
The team showed the effects of their hard work, starting to cramp a little bit at the end of the game, alleviating the crowds concern by fighting through it. O’Boyle said, “Both [Proctor and Goodman] will be in the cold baths and definitely drinking a lot of Gatorade.” Deservedly so, coach, deservedly so.
