By Brittany Burke
Alexzandria Dowdy
In a NEC rematch the CCSU women’s basketball (10-17, 7-10 NEC) team took on the Long Island University Blackbirds (19-9, 13-4 NEC), but couldn’t find their game in time to overcome the large half time deficit, falling to LIU 73-61.
The game against LIU was the Blue Devil’s last home game of the season and final career home game for seniors P.J. Wade and Emily Rose. After splitting last weekend’s games at Wagner and Mount Saint Mary’s CCSU got the lead early, but could not hold on.
“It’s always disappointing when you have senior night and when it’s on your home court and it’s your last home game, not to come away with a victory,” said Head Coach Beryl Piper.
The CCSU team were able to make some shots early in the first, which gave them the 14-8 lead, particularly the two three pointers made by Rose and Leanne Crockett, but their game quickly broke down.
The Blue Devils allowed the Blackbirds to gain 10 consecutive points, going over five minutes point-less. Blue Devils’ shots weren’t connecting no matter what. In the first half, CCSU made 27.6 percent of their field goals, while LIU made 48.3 percent.
“When your shots aren’t falling there’s nothing you can do. Every shot they took went in so I think it was just that kind of night,” said Kerrianne Dugan. “We were getting wide open shots and they just weren’t going in.”
Dugan had 11 points on the night, and was one of three Blue Devils to shoot double digits, including Crockett with 22 and Justina Udenze with 12 points.
“You know, we had that time in the first half where we couldn’t score. We started out great and then we had that period where we couldn’t put the ball in the basket and when no one wanted to shoot,” said Coach Piper. “I think we did a good job moving the ball better than we normally do, but nobody was shooting it or attacking the rim.”
The Blue Devils came out in the second half looking to do just that, attack the rim and get some shots up, but whenever CCSU would make the big shots, the Blackbirds would take the ball back down the court and score. With 16:40 left to play in the second half, LIU had a 16 point advantage over the Blue Devils, and the back and forth motion of the game made it impossible for CCSU to take the lead.
Midway through the second half, the Blue Devils started to connect with the basket making huge three point shots. CCSU made three back to back three pointers, putting them down by 13, but they couldn’t stop the Blackbirds who shot 58.3 percent in the second half.
“Yea, we started off hot and then got cold, so we knew we had it we just had to all find it again, and I think we all did in the beginning or whatever, middle of the second half so that was good,” said Crockett. Crockett went 6-13 on three point field goal attempts, attributing for more than half of CCSU’s three-point shots and was the game leader in rebounds with 12.
The Blue Devils had a tough time containing LIU’s Heidi Mothershead and Ashley Palmer who were major Black Bird contributors with 19 and 12 points respectively.
Despite the loss CCSU only had 11 turnovers in the match up and went 8-8 in free throws – areas of the game they’ve struggled with in the past.
“There is positives in this game in comparison to the first time we played them,” said Coach Piper. “I mean the first time we played them they had 22 points off our turnovers, and we only had 11 turnovers today, and for our team, 11 turnovers, not to have a turnover is awesome for us.”
The Blue Devils ended their regular season Saturday Feb. 27 at St. Francis (N.Y.), where they were looking to end on a high note.
“It definitely is a must win,” said Dugan. “We have to put it all out on the floor, and we have to win this game.”
