Coming off the team’s previous win at New Hampshire, the Stony Brook women’s basketball team put up impressive offensive numbers against Vermont and came away with a 74-62 road victory over the Catamounts on Wednesday night.
Stony Brook continued its recent domination over Vermont, as the Seawolves have compiled five victories in the last six games against their conference foe.
A trio of Seawolves topped the offensive game, as all three hit double-digit point totals. Both Kori Bayne-Walker and Sabre Proctor set the pace for scoring in the game with 23 points each.
Bayne-Walker also helped facilitate the offense by contributing six assists and drawing plenty of fouls while hitting nine of her 10 free throws.
Rounding out the trio of double-digit scorers for Stony Brook was Christa Scognamiglio, who dropped 15 points. She came up big from behind the arc, hitting four three-pointers on five attempts.
On the defensive end, it was Jessica Ogunnorin controlling the boards with 15 rebounds. No one came close to matching her rebound total as the player with the next-highest total was Niki Taylor of Vermont with six.
As a result of the performance from Ogunnorin, the Seawolves continued to dominate the boards as they have done all season long, finishing with a plus-11 rebound ratio, totaling 37 rebounds to Vermont’s 26.
Stony Brook also shot well from the line with an 80 percent free throw rate reaching the line 20 times in the game.
Kayla Burchill of the Vermont Catamounts led her team in scoring with 18 points. She would also finish second on the team in rebounding with five boards.
Stony Brook came out of the gates hot with a 12-2 lead under five minutes into the game. The lead would eventually dissipate, as the Catamounts would gain their footing and climb back. Although the lead shrunk for the Seawolves in the middle stages of the night, they never trailed and led for over 36 minutes.
Nearing the final minutes of the game, Stony Brook took over and put together a sequence of successful offensive and defensive series.
With a few Vermont turnovers and Stony Brook steals, the Seawolves were able to push a double-digit lead and close out the game handily.
The win moves Stony Brook to 13-10 with a 6-4 America East record. The Seawolves are now 4-1 on the road in conference games and will look to improve their play at home.
As the team moves forward, it will need to take one game at a time, as the race to the postseason is heating up and is doing so quickly. With the Seawolves jumping ahead of a very solid team in New Hampshire for the moment, it will be important to maintain their top-four seed in the conference.
Stony Brook may even have a chance to catch up to rival Hartford, the team right ahead of them in the standings by one game, with wins on Wednesday and Sunday against UMBC and Maine, respectively.
