A combination of strong post play inside by senior forward Brittany Snow and a team-wide shooting barrage on the perimeter led the way for the Stony Brook Women’s Basketball team over Vermont on Saturday afternoon, as head coach Caroline McCombs’ Seawolves—led by 24 points from Snow—got back to their winning ways with an impressive 73-59, wire-to-wire victory over the visiting Catamounts.
“In the first half they guarded me one-on-one, so I was able to see the court better and make more moves,” Snow said. “Then in the second half, they started [double-teaming] more and I was able to get the ball to my teammates.”
From beyond the arc, Stony Brook knocked down a season-best 50.0 percent of its 3-point field goals. Sophomore guard Aaliyah Worley led the strong shooting effort, coming off the bench and making all three of her 3-point attempts, en route to a season-best 16 points.
“I loved everything she was doing tonight,” McCombs said about Worley. “She was able to step in and knock down the 3-point shot, she got to the basket and attacked.”
Stony Brook played strong on defense right from the outset. Over Vermont’s first 13 possessions, the Catamounts made just one of seven shots while committing six turnovers, as the Seawolves opened the game on a 7-3 run.
Vermont continued to struggle from the field for most of the first half, totalling just 22 points before halftime. However, Stony Brook did not play much better. The Seawolves scored only 28 first-half points themselves, 12 of which came from Snow.
The Catamounts came into the game averaging 6.0 3-pointers made per game on offense, and when their offense finally began to click, it came via outside shooting. Sophomore guard Sydney Smith and senior guard Kylie Atwood each buried three 3-pointers, as the team totaled 10 3-point makes in the contest.
“We obviously didn’t want them to make 10 threes against us,” McCombs said. “Some of them were a little less contested than we would like.”
Oddly enough, Vermont shot worse in the game on two-point attempts (32 percent) than on 3-point attempts (37 percent), which was due in large part to the strong work done beneath the basket on defense from Snow and freshman forward Ogechi Anyagaligbo.
“We pride ourselves on being strong [on defense],” Snow said. “Ogechi and I like to bang around a little bit on the inside. That’s a key thing for us.”
Stony Brook came alive on offense in the second half, scoring 22 points in the third quarter and 23 points in the fourth quarter. Anyagaligbo and junior guard Christa Scognamiglio, who combined for only three first-half points, became more involved in the action in the second-half, as the pair totaled 17 points after the break.
The Seawolves used an 18-7 third quarter run, capped by 3-pointers from Worley and Scognamiglio, to take a 46-29 lead and put the game out of reach.
Freshman guard Davion Wingate, filling in for injured junior guard Kori Bayne-Walker as the starting point guard for the seventh consecutive game, scored 13 points as the team moved to 6-2 in conference play this season.
Stony Brook is now halfway through its America East slate, opening the second half of the conference season on Wednesday on the road against Binghamton, a team that the Seawolves beat by six points over winter break.
“Going into the second half of the conference season, coaches are better able to scout teams,” McCombs said. “We have to really be locked in to our gameplan. We have had a lot of grind-it-out games, and I expect more of that to come as we continue conference play.”
