by Kenneth Fermin
Graduate forward Cheyenne Clark drives to the basket against senior guard Te’yJah Oliver. Clark finished Thursday’s game with 15 points and 15 rebounds in the victory. PHOTO CREDIT: JIM HARRISON- STONY BROOK ATHLETICS
Stony Brook Women’s Basketball was trailing 30-19 after surrendering 19 points to the UMBC Retrievers in the second quarter, on Thursday, Jan 2nd. The Seawolves 10-game winning streak and conference-home opener was in jeopardy. Stony Brook needed its players to step up if they were going to win — still without graduate guard Kaela Hilaire due to injury.
Forwards graduate Cheyenne Clark and junior India Pagan obliged, teaming up to drop 22 points and grab 15 rebounds in the second half. The duo bolstered the Stony Brook offense and helped command a 38-point second half, en route to the 57-45 victory.
“We’ve talked a lot about different people being able to step up at different times,” Head Coach Caroline McCombs said in a press release. “As KK [Hilaire] has been out for the last couple of games, it’s given different people an opportunity to run our team. It’s just so important that whoever may be out for a particular game, we have other players who are able to fill those roles.”
The team committed more errors than usual without Hilaire running point– committing 10 turnovers and getting the ball stolen seven times in the first half. UMBC junior forward Janee’a Summer capitalized off Stony Brook freshman guard Gigi Gonzalez’s turnover with a layup, erasing a five point deficit two minutes into the second quarter. Summers and junior forward Lucrezia Costa controlled the boards in the quarter, leading to the Retrievers benefiting off second offensive chances and taking an 11 point lead into halftime.
But the Seawolves backed up their claims of having conference’s the most depth and versatility by turning to Pagan and Clark. The pair dueled with Summers and Lucrezia Costa inside the paint and came out on top in the second half.
Clark converted a missed layup by Pagan into points opening the third quarter, sparking a 17-2 run. Stony Brook was much more aggressive getting to the ball in the second half, stealing the ball six times.This woke up the Seawolves offense, which connected on 53 percent of their shots and four 3-pointers. The defense held UMBC to six points in the third and under 32 percent shooting in the half, after the Retrievers made nearly 45 percent of their first-half attempts.
Summers and Costa battled back with layups, cutting Stony Brook’s lead to 44-40 with seven minutes left in the contest. Stony Brook responded on the next two possessions, with Pagan knocking down her mid-range jump shot and Clark finding the net off a steal by Gonzalez. Summers finished the game with a late layup, but the game was out of reach for the Retrievers to amount a sustainable comeback.
Pagan led the contest with 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds as well. Clark earned her seventh-double double at Stony Brook and finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds. The pair combined for 22 rebounds, grabbing one more than the entire UMBC team did in the game.
Pagan praised her fellow forward in an interview prior to tonight’s contest.
“I’ve never met or even seen a player like Cheyenne Clark in the game of basketball,” Pagan said. “She’s a different type of player .The fire she has in her to pursue those rebounds , how high she jumps, to get second chance opportunities for her teammates, to drive and determined to get a bucket, she’s a freak athlete blessed with such gifts and skills.
Tonight was a milestone victory for both Stony Brook Women’s Basketball and Coach McCombs. The team’s 13th victory added another win to their program-record start in Division I play. McCombs earned her 100th victory as a Stony Brook head coach and is only eight wins away from tying Sandy Weeden as the program’s second-winningest coach.
For McCombs, she credited the program’s success to her players chemistry on and off the court.
“You can start counting wins,” McCombs said. “But I think we became a better program when we stopped focusing on the outcome and really committed to the process.”
Stony Brook will continue its three game conference-homestand against the reigning America East Champion Maine Black Bears, on Sunday, Jan. 5th. The Black Bears enter with a 5-10 overall record, taking their conference opener over the winless Hartford Hawks, 87-73, Thursday night. McCombs is not underestimating Maine’s competitiveness, despite its rocky non-conference season.
“Maine has a great culture,” McCombs said. “They have done a great job of building their program with great players and a great system.As they have struggled in the non-conference season, they will be right there in the mix because that is the expectation for their program– win championships.”
Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and WUSB 90.1.
