Bobby Martinez – Sports Writer
It took junior Jackie Beathea 49 games to reach her 1,000th point. But the final result wasn’t in favor of the Owls (12-10, 9-5 NE-10) who suffered a close loss, 82-75, against cross town rival University of New Haven Chargers (18-3, 12-3 NE-10).
Despite the loss, Beathea said in regards to her 1,000 point, she is proud of this accomplishment because it shows her team that she is working hard each and every practice where she is able to help her team out every game possible.
“It means a lot to me because I feel like I’m trying my best,” said Beathea, “to do my job for the team and the school as a whole. I’m going to keep working. I’m going to keep pushing. I don’t want to stop at my 1,000th point. I want to keep going.”
Heading into their matchup against the Chargers, the Owls were looking to continue their winning ways against their conference opponents where they were eyeing a three game win streak, but going ice cold in the final minutes, the Owls weren’t able to close out the game the way they wanted to said Owls head coach Bert DeSalvo.
“I,” said DeSalvo, “thought we made some mistakes defensively on their sets and some of their personnel. They played great and made some free throws at the end, so kudos to them. They are a top 25 team in the nation and we were able to stay close with them. It was a one possession game until we started fouling and stuff.”
For most of the game, both teams went back and forth. The Chargers, who won their last 12 of 13 games, got off to a quick 10-4 run and one would’ve thought the Owls had no chance judging by the way they started the game.
But just like every game, DeSalvo and his players shook of their jitters and began to work, and it all started with Beathea, who finished the first half with nine points and five rebounds where the Owls trailed 36-35 at the half.
In the second half, the Chargers looked like a team that was clearly trying to run the Owls out of their own gym. The Chargers managed to hold three seven point leads which seemed to drain the Owls late in the game as they tried to claw back into the game. One major help in favor of the Chargers, was forcing Beathea into foul trouble.
Between Beathea and sophomore Taylor McLaughlin, the Owls were able to tie the game up at 75 with 1:12 left in the game. The Owls would go ice cold for the remainder of the game where a 7-0 Chargers run, sealed the game and gave the Owls their 10th loss on the season and fifth loss in the Northeast-10 Conference.
Beathea, who finished the game with 19 points and 12 rebounds after she fouled out with 30 seconds left in the game, said, as a team she is happy the way they fought throughout the game no matter the deficit.
“I feel like we executed well altogether,” said Beathea. “I mean, they tried to put a defense to try and stop us, and we were actually executing at first, but they ended up doing a good job.”
McLaughlin was another spark for the Owls who throughout the game, hit huge shots for the Owls whether she was guarded by one or two players. McLaughlin finished the game with a team high 21 points and seven rebounds.
With six games left on the season, the Owls are currently fourth in their conference, third in their division (Southwest Division) with a 9-5 record. Senior guard Sydni Lester, who finished the game with ten points and four rebounds, said in order for her team to finish the season on a high note, they must go out each and every game and compete as hard they can.
“We just know that we can’t take any steps off because we know that every team in this conference is really good, and they can use that to their advantage,” said Lester. “We just have to go hard each game, we’re not that great where we can just take plays off. We have to go hard each and every time.”
