Coach Krista Kilburn-Steveskey said that one-dimensionality should be the last of the Pride’s problems. While the team is young, its depth is inarguable, with a lineup full of players with the potential to score-“we definitely have more than one option,” as the coach said. However, Hofstra (2-3) abandoned their inside-out game against the Long Island University Blackbirds at home Wednesday, and it proved costly, as Jess Fuller, Sam Brigham and the Pride fell to their intra-state rivals, 61-56.
“We were trying to use the inside-out game and it didn’t work,” Kilburn-Steveskey said. “We knew that we had a size advantage against them, we knew that we could do a good job of getting the ball in, but we have to find this happy balance.”
The game started out slow, according to Kilburn-Steveskey, with each team trading scoring lulls. The Blackbirds opened the game hot, scoring 10 of the contest’s first 14 points. However, Hofstra managed to bounce back behind the inside presence of the junior college transfer Fuller (19 points, 11 rebounds), scoring 17 of the next 23 points to move up 21-16. LIU (5-2) would continue the trend, though, going on an 11-2 run of their own to move back up, 28-23; a lead they would never relinquish.
“Coming into tonight, I thought we were at least coming together,” Kilburn-Steveskey said. “When things went bad early and we didn’t have any leadership from our upperclassmen.”
“No one was having any life,” she continued, “and that’s probably the frustration you can take away: where is that leadership that we need.”
The remainder of the game proved to be a back-and-forth affair, with LIU never leading by more than eight, and Hofstra never pulling closer than two. And down the stretch, the Pride still had an opportunity to close the gap and perhaps even tie the game.
With under 2:00 left, guard Natty Fripp nailed a three-pointer from the corner off an LIU timeout, drawing Hofstra to within three, 53-50. After Blackbird forward Sara Oblak hit an easy jumper to put LIU back up by five, power forward Kristina Campbell hit a left-handed hook shot-her second late basket-pulling Hofstra back within one possession.
“Kristina is getting more confident now,” Kilburn-Steveskey said. “I think this will help her tonight getting her more confidence, not in terms of the loss, but at least for some film saying okay you can go to work when you get in there.”
With 37 seconds left, though, the Blackbirds’ premiere offensive weapon, Valeria Nainima, hit a jumper from the right elbow with time winding down on the shot clock putting the Blackbirds up by five. And after a pair of Fuller free throws, Nainima would proceed to thwart the Pride’s hopes again, earning two more trips to the line thereafter hitting the jumper, nailing all of her stretch-free throw attempts to ensure the Blackbirds’ five-point win.
“She could drive, she could pull-up; you never really knew what she was going to do,” said Brigham, who guarded Nainima for most of the night.
Nainima’s stat line at the end of the game showed that while her field goal percentage was sub-par-she shot just 6-19 from the floor-she hit every one of her 13 free throw attempts, keying a 26-point, seven-rebound, 10-assist night.
The Pride will look to bounce back next week in the “Battle for Long Island” against the rival Stony Brook Seawolves. Kilburn-Steveskey hopes that the young, mistake-prone team that committed 18 turnovers against LIU will bounce back with the help of some leadership, and return to the .500 mark on the season.
“We have got to have something to turn to give us a lift, an energy boost,” Kilburn-Steveksey said. “It’s going to be a learning experience.”