Stony Brook Women’s Basketball continued rolling on Saturday afternoon, winning its fourth straight game, taking down New Hampshire 62-56 at Lundholm Gymnasium. With the win, the Seawolves move into fourth place of the America East standings with just over one week left in the regular season.
“I thought we really turned up our defensive intensity in the second half,” head coach Caroline McCombs said in a press release. “Our players responded after halftime and set the tone for the rest of the game. We had some huge contributions from our bench today, and the win was a total team effort.”
Junior guards Shania Johnson and Jerell Matthews scored 15 points each, with Johnson scoring 10 of her points in the second half and Matthews recording a season-high five assists. The two guards have been the true cornerstones of the team, as they are the only two players to have double-digit scoring averages.
Matthews hit a three-pointer with 2:41 remaining in the fourth quarter to give her team a five-point cushion it would never relinquish. The Wildcats made multiple comeback attempts in the final minutes, but senior guard Aaliyah Worley went 5-6 from the free-throw line in the final 25 seconds of regulation to secure the victory for the Seawolves.
Both teams started out slow, with the Wildcats taking an early 13-12 lead after the first quarter. The Wildcats continued to roll from there, outscoring the Seawolves 20-17 in the second quarter and holding a 33-29 lead heading into halftime.
New Hampshire built its lead up to six early in the third quarter, but Stony Brook worked New Hampshire for the final six minutes of the quarter, with Johnson’s layup with under a minute left in the third quarter giving Stony Brook a one-point leading heading into the fourth.
Redshirt-freshman forward Oksana Gouchie-Provencher scored a career-high eight points, Worley added seven points and four rebounds and freshman forward India Pagan chipped in 10 points and four rebounds.
The Seawolves have been on a roll the past four games, and the stats are there to prove it. The team has been making sure to make the most of its free-throw opportunities, going 54-68 from the charity stripe over the past four contests.
Stony Brook has won all four games by single digits, with the win against UMBC on Wednesday being the second straight game the team came back to win after trailing at halftime.
The team has had the hot hand shooting the ball as well. Stony Brook has shot the ball above 40 percent for the game in all but one contest. Sunday afternoon had the Seawolves shooting 48 percent from the floor, including 11-22 in the second half, and 6-11 in the final quarter of play.
Rebounding has been a key component for the Seawolves all season long. The team has a 13-0 record when they out rebound their opponents, and Sunday was no exception. Junior forward Cheyenne Clark grabbed in a game-high 12 rebounds, and the Seawolves outrebounded the Wildcats 31-29.
Stony Brook will conclude its regular season with a road game against the Vermont Catamounts on Sunday, Feb. 25 at the Patrick Gym at 7 p.m.
