After falling behind in the third quarter by as many as 13 points, the Stony Brook Women’s Basketball team was unable to come back, falling 71-66 to the Hofstra Pride on Tuesday night. In the loss, Senior forward Brittany Snow had a double-double, scoring 22 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.

Stony Brook was ultimately unable to contain Hofstra’s junior guard Kelly Loftus, who led all scorers with 26 points. Loftus was most effective from behind the three point line, where she scored 18 of her points, including one with 36 seconds left to give the Pride a two-possession lead. Led by Loftus and sophomore forward Ashunae Durant in the fourth quarter, the Pride were able to hold their lead in the fourth quarter.

Turnovers and missed free throws spelled trouble for the Seawolves. Stony Brook committed 17 turnovers and only shot 67 percent on its twenty-seven attempts at the stripe. Outside of Snow, freshman forward Ogechi Anyagaligbo scored in double digits for the Seawolves with 12. Anyagaligbo was only able to put up three points in the second half after she got into foul trouble. Anyagaligbo nearly had a double-double, grabbing nine rebounds as well.  

“We can’t hang our heads, there’s a lot to learn in this game,” Seawolves head coach Caroline McCombs said. “We get twenty-seven free throw opportunities and we only make eighteen, we have to take advantage of those.”

Despite losing the turnover battle 9-4 in the first half, the Seawolves found themselves down by six going into the locker room at halftime. Stony Brook stuck to what worked in the first twenty minutes of the contest, as the Seawolves shot a very efficient 52 percent from the field. Ultimately, Hofstra’s largest lead before halftime was six, as it could not pull away from Stony Brook.

The Seawolves were flat coming out of the locker room. The Pride went on a 13-6 run to start off the second half. Snow was able to keep her team in the game with eight points in the third quarter, keeping the Seawolves’ deficit within single digits going into the fourth quarter.

Led by Snow and freshman guard Davion Wingate, the Seawolves went on a 7-0 run to start the fourth, cutting the Pride’s lead to two. Two points was as close as they would come however, as Hofstra’s Loftus and Durant proved to be too much for Stony Brook.

“They got hot in the first half, hitting those threes early on in the first quarter. We gave up twenty points, it was just too many,” McCombs said of her team’s defense. “They were just able to hit some of those threes to give them a burst and we were just struggling to defend their pick and roll.”

This was Stony Brook’s first road game of the early season. The Seawolves will look to bounce back Friday night when they visit the Saint Peter’s Peacocks.

Featured image credit: Zack Lane/Hofstra University Photographer