The Stony Brook women’s basketball team (5-22, 2-13 AE) lost to the University of Hartford (13-15, 10-5 AE) 67-63 at Pritchard Gymnasium on Wednesday night.
The Seawolves played an impressive first half, but ultimately were crushed by the Hawks spot-on foul shooting.
Stony Brook took a quick lead when senior Kirsten Jeter (Elmont, N.Y.) scored a jumper 25 seconds in. Tight man-to-man defense and aggressive shooting helped hold Hartford within single-digits until 8:44 in the first half, when Ruthanne Doherty made two free throws to bring the score to 15-12.
That was the only time the Hawks came close in the first half. The teams went into halftime with Stony Brook up, 25-19.
The second half, however, was not as nice.
“We just lost focus, we gave them opportunity to shoot 58% from the floor in the second half, that’s absolutely ridiculous,” interim head coach Evelyn Thompson said. “And not only that … but 75% from the three point line, they were 6 for 8 in the second half.”
Hartford came out aggressively, taking the lead two minutes in.
Stony Brook took back the lead a minute later, making the score 29-28. The Seawolves then went on an impressive 9-0 run.
The Hawks kept pushing, cutting the score and then falling behind several times. With 8:34 left, a three-pointer by Hartford’s Amanda Weaver made the score 53-50. The Hawks kept within three points until eventually gaining the lead, 58-57, three minutes later.
But the Seawolves refused to give up, tying the score at 59 with 4:25 left. Hartford regained the lead, but two foul shots from Jeter tied the game at 63 with 1:14 left.
However, a turnover by junior Tamiel Murray (Waterford, Conn.) stopped Stony Brook cold, and four free throws in the final 42 seconds secured the win for Hartford.
“It is difficult to come out with a win when you add all those statistics in the second half,” said Coach Thompson. “We allowed them to [get to] the [free throw] line 17 times and to go 14 of 17, which is 82% from the line.”
The Hawks shot 79.2% from the free throw line overall and scored 22 points off of 18 Stony Brook turnovers.
In addition to Jeter, who led the team with 13 points and 7 rebounds, three other Seawolves finished in double digits. Sophomore Sam Landers (Springfield, Va.) and junior Destiny Jacobs (Glen Burnie, Md.) had 13 points and 5 rebounds apiece. Junior Whitney Davis also chipped in with 12 points.
The women will close the season and honor their seniors at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday against Binghamton at Pritchard Gymnasium.
