No. 4 Stony Brook Falls in America East
Women’s Basketball Semifinals to No. 1 Hartford, 65-43
Trailing by just eight with under five minutes left in the second half, No. 4
Stony Brook fell just short of an upset bid of No. 1 Hartford in the semifinals
of the America East Women’s Basketball Championship on Sunday afternoon in Chase
Arena. Junior Kirsten Jeter (Elmont, N.Y.)
scored a game-high 19 and grabbed nine rebounds. Junior Misha Horsey (Wyncote, Pa.) joined Jeter in double figures with 11
points. Stony Brook finishes the 2009-10 season with a 10-20
record.
“I’m really
proud of the effort we showed today,” said head coach Michele Cherry. “We
battled all season and really came together as a team. We’ve really improved
from the start of the season to now, and it showed today. Hartford is a great team
and they deserve a lot of credit for the way they’ve played today, and all
season long.”
As it has
all season, Stony Brook relied on its defense as it jumped out to a 4-0 lead.
The Seawolves held Hartford scoreless over until the 16:15 mark
and didn’t allow the Hawks a field goal for more than five minutes.
Hartford would not stay down for long,
however, as they scored eight unanswered points to take a 12-6 lead with 10:54
left in the first half. Stony Brook would claw its way back into the game,
eventually pulling within two on a jumper from Jeter with 3:43 remaining. On the
next Hartford possession, senior Joia Daniels (Silver Spring, Md.) poked the ball free and had an open court in front of
her, but unluckily bumped into an official allowing Hartford to regain
possession. In the ensuing scramble, Hartford’s Jackie Smith found teammate Diana
Delva for an easy layup, putting the Hawks up four.
A layup by
Daniels followed by a pair of free throws from sophomore Destiny Jacobs (Glen Burnie, Md.) would knot the score at 25-25 with 2:41
remaining, but the Hawks would outscore Stony Brook 9-1 down the stretch to take
an eight-point lead at halftime.
Behind a
balanced scoring attack, SBU recorded eight of the first 11 points in the second
half to cut the Hawks’ lead to just three with 14:46 left. However, back-to-back
threes from Mary Silvia pushed Hartford’s advantage back to nine.
Stony Brook
would get as close as eight at the 5:33 mark on a jumper by Jeter, but that
would be the Seawolves final points of the game as Hartford finished the contest
off with on a 14-0 run.
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