Bobby Martinez – Sports Writer
NEW HAVEN — With five players averaging double digits in points heading into their matchup against Assumption College, Southern Connecticut women’s basketball team was looking for their 11th win of the season.
The Owls have been playing their best basketball of the season so far winning four of their last five games. Both teams started the game fast paced trading buckets after bucket. Throughout the first half, the Owls had an answer for every Assumption play.
As a team, the Owls were very vocal on calling out screens and talking on offense as well. Sophomore Jackie Beathea played a big role on her teams rebounding chances in the first half and helped the Owls take a 25-17 lead heading into the half.
Owls head coach Meghan Brown said her team’s defense and talking to each other on the court was a key component throughout the game.
“They were very disciplined [and] they knew where the shooters were throughout the game,” said Brown. “They also did a great job of communicating and switching on screens and putting their hands up on Assumption’s threes because we knew that could hurt us.”
Assumption came out the gate in the second half much sharper than the Owls and forced early turnovers. But the Owls, just like they managed in the first half, stuck together and started to play much smarter.
With both teams going back and forth for long stretches of the second half, Brown said she made sure her team spoke up on both sides of the ball if they plan on winning the game.
“I told my team to stay in control on offense, move the ball and get better shots,” she said. “Also, we looked to attack them and set more on ball screens to help create some more movement in the middle.”
Midway through the second half, Owls up 38-33, freshman forward Taylor McLaughlin drove in the lane for a wide open layup extending the lead 40-33. Sophomore point guard Nicole Grossbard added to the lead after a layup that gave the Owls their largest lead of the game, 42-33.
Assumption fought back into the game with eight minutes left in the half cutting the deficit to four, 44-40. The Owls fast play started to force turnovers but Assumption couldn’t capitalize on every turnover. The Owls rebounding on both sides of the ball helped them win the game from the free throw line and secure their 11th win on the season, 59-50.
Junior guard Sydni Lester said after her team’s victory over Assumption, she is happy her team is winning games and hopes they can keep winning.
“It’s a good feeling because we know we are the underdogs in our conference,” said Lester. “We are just working on our game, working with each other and this is just a great feeling for us.”
Lester helped secure the Owls victory over Assumption with two key jump shots in the final minutes of the game. Lester said her teams focus during the final minutes of the game was to keep playing hard and not quitting.
“The focus was just to attack, go to the basket and play together and just do everything our coaches asked us to do to play smart and our defense,” she said.
With rival University of New Haven next on the Owls schedule, Lester said her teams has to keep playing at a high level and well in order to pull off the victory.
“We have to play our game,” she said. “We have to play strong, we have to play for each other and just know the key players at all time and play our game.”
Brown said her team has to keep focused each day and keep playing the way her team does in order to keep tallying up wins.
“We need to stay focused on the details that get us these wins,” said Brown. “We need to move the ball, paying attention on defense, talking and our energy because when we have energy we play great games.”
