On Jan. 11 of this season, the Stony Brook Women’s Basketball team went up to New Hampshire to take on the Wildcats, a team that has given them great battles over the past couple of years. This time was no exception, as the Seawolves rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit to force overtime, but could not pull off the win, losing 71-68 despite a career high 25 points from Sabre Proctor.
Fast forward to a month later, Proctor went above 20 once again, and the Seawolves were able to pull away in the second half to defeat the Wildcats 76-63 Sunday at Pritchard Gymnasium.
“Every game is a battle,” coach O’Boyle said afterwards. This one was no different in the first half, as the biggest lead for the Seawolves was when Proctor knocked down two of her team-high 21 to put them up eight points with 6:16 to go in the first half. Proctor recorded her 36th double-digit scoring game, which breaks a tie with Beth Grys for eighth since 1994-1995.
She is one game behind Dana Ferraro, who had 37 between 2004-2008.
But even then, UNH answered promptly with two of their five first-half threes to cut it right back down to two. UNH started the game five of seven from deep to keep them in it early.
“We were doing a good job of contesting the threes. They just went in,” coach O’Boyle said. The game plan was to hold that three-point game, according to the third year coach. “We know that’s how they play. We didn’t want them to have any open threes,” she said.
The Seawolves would lead at the break 30-25.
The second half brought a lot more offense, as the Seawolves were able to put up 46 during the final 20 minutes, while shooting 61.5 percent from the field in the second half.
“To be able to put up those points against a team like New Hampshire is a great team effort,” coach O’Boyle said. “We did a variety of things and our transition points were huge for us.”
Three points decided the previous two matchups between these teams, including that America East Tournament Quarterfinal thriller which was decided by Kelsey Hogan’s three pointer from 30 feet at the buzzer. Hogan had a game-high 25 points, and though it was very quiet, her impact was still clear.
But it was the Seawolves who controlled this game, especially in the second half, where their lead grew to as big as 18.
Stony Brook improves to 8-3 in the conference, while moving up to 17-7 overall. This was New Hampshire’s first conference loss to a team other than Albany since Feb. 23 of last season, when they lost by 13 to Binghamton. The Wildcats are now 8-2 in the conference, and 14-9 overall.
