The Stony Brook Women’s Basketball team made history on Senior Day during a Wednesday matinee, racking up their record-setting 21st win of the season in a 66-57 victory over Vermont.
With three seniors playing their final game in Pritchard Gymnasium, a loud farewell sent Chikilra Goodman, Teasha Harris and Natalie Myers off on a high note. Students from local schools packed every available seat, making for a raucous crowd.
In a pregame ceremony, the three guards were honored by their teammates, coaches, Interim Athletic Director Donna Woodruff and the fans in attendance with a commemorative plaque and flowers.
Goodman, who has been named America East Player of the Week, got off to a strong start in a low scoring first half for the Seawolves. As turnovers came left and right for both teams, the starting guard got to the basket to score seven points in the first half. She added five rebounds to lead the team to a nine-point lead at the break.
Junior Jessica Ogunnorin helped the cause in the first half, along with a monster performance on the boards. Playing nearly the entire 20 minutes, Ogunnorin snatched 11 rebounds, almost outrebounding Vermont’s 17 by herself.
Although they turned the ball over more in the second half than the first, Stony Brook managed to maintain their lead by shooting a solid 50 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes.
The offensive production went from stalled to rapidly moving from the moment the players returned to the court for the second half. The coaches were pleading for their players to get to the basket more, and they did a much better job in the second half.
Pushing the pace, the likes of Harris, Goodman and Kori Bayne-Walker, among others, sprinted the ball down the court in transition before looking for a streaking teammate for a layup attempt. Whenever Vermont was able to slow the pace down and force Stony Brook into a half-court set, like was common in the first half, putting the ball in the hoop was more troublesome.
A good sign moving into their final game of the season is how wide the scoring balance has been. Junior Sabre Proctor leads the team in points per game by a healthy margin, yet she was fifth on the team with eight points, even when battling foul trouble.
Sophomore Brittany Snow led the four Seawolves in double figures with 15 points, making all five of her free throws.
Snow epitomized the recent trend for the Seawolves of cashing in at the charity stripe. Proctor and redshirt sophomore Miranda Jenkins both were perfect from the line as well, carrying the team to 84.2 percent shooting on free throws.
Coach Beth O’Boyle was happy with the team effort, saying that, “We knew it was going to be a grind out game, and I thought that we did a really good job of pushing the tempo.”
In their final regular season game before the America East tournament, Stony Brook will get a possible preview of a championship matchup with Albany on Saturday afternoon, at Albany.
