By Nick Pipitone
When junior guard Cigi McCollin was benched before last Friday’s game at the College of William & Mary, it was the first time she had not started in 32 games, dating back to her sophomore season. Having a rough season thus far by her standards, head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said McCollin has been passing up too many open shots.
When McCollin returned to the starting lineup Sunday, she erased any doubts that she has faded as one of the Pride’s primary scoring threats, posting a career-high 34 points and propelling the Blue & Gold (12-8 overall, 7-4 Colonial Athletic Association) to a 91-76 win over UNC Wilmington (12-8, 6-5) at Trask Coliseum.
For her efforts, McCollin was named PrestoSports/MBWA Player of the Week.
“That’s not even close to what I think she can do in the future,” Jack said. “My confidence in that kid is off the scale. I’ve been very disappointed that she’s been playing with a lack of confidence. Her challenge was to take open shots and believe they can go in.”
With the win, the Pride snapped a three-game losing skid and picked up its first win in Wilmington in four attempts. The 91 points was the most for the Pride since 1993 as it split its two-game weekend road trip and moved up to fourth place in the CAA standings.
The Pride started the trip sourly, losing at William & Mary, 69-62, and extending a three-game losing streak, its longest of the season. McCollin said the team was eager to get back on track this past Sunday against the Seahawks. The shooting guard herself was anxious to get on the court after playing only 23 minutes against the Tribe and shooting a poor 3-for-13 from the field.
McCollin and the Pride came out firing in the first half, shooting 59.4 percent and racking up a season-high 48 first half points. The Long Island native scored 17 points in the half, shooting 6-for-7 from the field and hitting five three-pointers, already tying a career-high. The team took a 48-31 lead into halftime after shutting the Seahawks out for an 8:27 stretch in the half.
“It was important for them to have confidence [in the first half],” Jack said. “It was important that shots went in early because now they have confidence and play a little more defense.”
The second half provided more scoring, mostly by McCollin. She added another 17 points and finished the game shooting 92 percent from the field and 8-for-9 from beyond the arc in 35 minutes, becoming the first Pride player to surpass the 30-point mark since 2002. She surpassed her previous career-mark of 29 points, which she set last season.
The 34-point performance was the eighth-most in Pride single-game history, while her shooting percentage and eight three-pointers rank in the top five in Division I single-game performances thus far this season. McCollin is now averaging a team-high 14.8 points, fifth in the conference.
In terms of the team though, it was a big victory that got it back to its winning ways. The Pride is off to its second-best 20-game start in its D-I history, and with a 7-3 road mark, is only two wins behind the 1983-84 team for the most in program history.
“I think [this win] was extremely important,” McCollin said. “It gave us a chance to start again and regroup. We told ourselves losing is not us. We started something and we have to finish it.”
The Pride host Georgia State University tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at the Arena and then the second-place University of Delaware Sunday at 2 p.m. The Blue & Gold beat conference newcomer GSU, 74-49, Jan. 22 and will face the Blue Hens for the first of two match ups, both being solid contests.