Stony Brook Women’s Basketball before a game in the 2018-19 season. The Seawolves enter the 2019-20 America East season with a conference best 12-1 record. PHOTO CREDIT- JIM HARRISON STONY BROOK ATHLETICS
by Kenneth Fermin
It doesn’t take long to realize when a team is ‘special’, especially when said team goes 12-1 against tough competition in non-conference play. Stony Brook Basketball forward Cheyenne Clark knew this team was ‘special’ before the team even stepped foot on the court. Clark realized the potential after the team finished reading and discussing a book– “Pound the Stone- 7 Lessons to Develop Grit on the Path to Mastery,” by Joshua Medcalf.
“From the moment we finished Pound The Stone by Joshua Medcalf this year with the freshmen and newcomers I said to myself, ‘Wow this group is truly special,’” Clark said.
The story follows a fictionalized basketball player’s journey to master his obstacles while learning key principles and life lessons.
After falling to the Hartford Hawks in the 2019 America East Semifinals, Stony Brook was eliminated from the playoffs and back to square one. The Seawolves had to replace their two leading scorers, guards Shania ‘Shorty’ Johnson and Jerell Matthews, and find a system that the team can thrive in. The team knew it was not going to be easy, even though they retained most of their veterans and added experienced transfers.
“[The] first practices are always rough,” junior forward India Pagan said. “We just had to learn how to play with each other– new skills and talents– different players. But we had to go through those bad practices to get where we are now.”
The team broke through the rough patches and established key principles in order to find the play style that would give them the edge. Picking up graduate guard Kaela Hilaire, the team got a mix of shooting and shot creating that gets the floor involved. The Seawolves mostly turn to junior forward India Pagan inside the paint, utilizing her 6-1 height to score in the paint. Junior forward Hailey Zeise begins the defensive battle before opponents even cross halfcourt– placing teammates in the right spots and fishing for steals alongside Hilaire. Pagan and Clark have made opponents struggle getting boards inside, while sophomore guard Anastassia Warren adds support rebounding and starting fast breaks.
The bench’s experience and versatility also contribute to the system this season. Five of its six players in the ‘second rotation’ with at least 10 games played are upperclassmen with starting experience from last season. The bench brings depth to both sides of the court, with players such as Oksana Gouchie-Provencher performing as both a defensive brick wall and mid-range threat. Jonae Cox and Kenzie Bushee are overall threats with great chemistry, making it likely for Bushee to convert a shot off from one of Cox’s rebounds. Gigi Gonzalez, the lone underclassman, is adjusting to seeing more minutes per game in the point and shooting guard positions. Victoria Johnson has settled in well as the bench’s best scorer and remains on par with her almost-automatic free throw conversions from Hinds Community College.
“I believe we have such a depth,” Pagan said. “Anybody coming off the bench at any given day can have 15-plus points. Every game someone different sets up and that’s what’s special about our team. Our bench gives us energy. And yes we have the strongest depth in the conference. Many teams just play 2 or 3 more players off the bench, we can play about 6-7 more off the bench.”
Stony Brook worked hard creating this system of success– a system that has paid off starting with their 86-73 season opener victory over St. Francis Brooklyn on Nov. 5th. One win, turned into two, and now 12. The Seawolves defeated intrastate rivals such as Hofstra, foes like Power 5-team Pittsburgh, and performed in Puerto Rico for the first time in program history. Whether it was on the road against No. 20-ranked Arkansas, where the team suffered its lone non-conference loss, or at home in a nail-biter over Bucknell, the system in place has only strengthened the players.
“Our non-conference schedule gave us a variety of offenses we will most likely see throughout the America East and have to defend,” Hilaire said. “We also were battle tested in a lot of our games where we hit adversity in different ways but had to overcome and we did just that like in [Pittsburgh] playing in such an atmosphere, being down against Sacred Heart, playing in Puerto Rico at a neutral site and Western Michigan being a very similar team to us. “
The players thrive off the winning culture they created and are making noise among the NCAA’s elite. The Seawolves place 35th in the NCAA for holding their competitors to 35 percent shooting per game, 33rd in the country with a rebound margin of over eight-and-a-half grabs and are in the top 25 with 554 boards through 13 contests. Its 92.3 winning percentage ranks among the top 10 in the nation and better than No.20-ranked Arkansas as well as the rest of the America East.
Stony Brook looks like the team to beat in the America East, something Clark and her teammates take to heart.
“We are our biggest rivals. The only people I believe we will have to outperform is the team we were last game, or last practice,” Clark said,” As we collectively look for ways to improve our yesterday for today.
Stony Brook Women’s Basketball is currently projected to win the conference to fill the 13th seed in ESPN analyst Charlie Creme’s ‘Bracketology’ and are currently 18th in the ‘College Insider Mid-Major Top 25’ Ranking. However, conference play is always unpredictable and rivals such as the Binghamton Bearcats, who are 11-2 with a winning percentage in the Top 20 nationally, don’t trail too far behind. Despite this, the players believe they are ready to hoist up the championship at the end of the season as long as they continue succeeding in the system and “pound the stone.”
“I believed we were capable the minute I saw and learned about the culture of the program coach has built here,” Hilaire said. “There’s no other way but to pound the stone and get better everyday and that’s what we have done; gotten better every game.”
Stony Brook begins America East action on Thursday, Jan. 2nd at Island Federal Arena with tip-off set for 6:30. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN+ and WUSB 90.1 FM.
