By Bob Bonett
The Colonial Athletic Association preseason voting committee seemed none-too optimistic regarding the chances of coach Krista Kilburn-Steveskey and the women’s basketball team repeating their 26-win season a year ago. A young team marked by the loss of a quartet of seniors, nobody knew what to expect from the team on opening night against the Iona Gaels. However, with a flare for the dramatics and some second-half fireworks, the Pride averted an opening-day loss with a come-from-behind 62-59 win over their MEAC opponents.
Featuring a starting lineup that had no players average over five points-per-game last season, including a freshman running point guard, the women looked lackluster in the early-going, shooting just 30-percent in the first half while finding themselves in a three-point hole. Ten players saw action as the team turned the ball over 10 times. Moreover, with a short lineup on the court for most of the half-Britne Rodgers, a 5’9″ freshman, saw some time at the power forward position-the team failed to hit a groove from beyond the arc, hitting only one of five three-pointers in the opening stanza.
However, behind senior Linn Quamme, the team came out strong for the final 20 minutes, showing no signs of a first-half hangover, to eventually overtake Iona.
“We trailed for most of the game and at the end we were just relentless,” Quamme said.
Kilburn-Steveskey then echoed Quamme’s sentiments, saying that the comeback was “just character” on the part of the women.
Limited to just two-for-seven shooting in the season’s first 20 minutes, Quamme proved clutch throughout the second period. She opened the second half hitting a three-pointer to tie the two teams at 34, and closed the game with three rebounds in the final three minutes to clinch her first career double-double, a 13-point, 11-rebound showing.
“I had very specific goals and I said if I do these things well, and handle my job the best I can, everything else will fall into place,” Quamme said.
Key to the team’s second half run was also a new-look stringent defense. After allowing four three-pointers to Iona’s perimeter players in the first half-namely Catherine Lutz, who shot three-for-six from the perimeter in just seven first-half minutes-Kilburn-Steveskey moved the women into a full court press for the second half that limited Iona’s effectiveness from outside.
“We put in a smaller lineup and we tried to put on a lot of switches,” Kilburn-Steveskey said. I thought my team did a great job of being able to make a lot of adjustments on the fly.”
One of the cogs in the lockdown second-half defense was Natty Fripp. Playing 36 minutes-the most on the team-Fripp was a stalwart on both offense and defense. Despite shooting just one-for-seven from the perimeter, Fripp finished the game with nearly a double-double, including nine points and nine rebounds, to go along with six assists and four steals, while just turning the ball over three times.
Quamme and Fripp, a junior, were each up to the opening-night challenge in playing relentlessly throughout the game. Missing the veteran presence that carried the team to two postseason victories last year, Kilburn-Steveskey needed the new leaders on the team to step up in the second half to ensure that Hofstra did not fall into a deeper hole. And with Quamme missing just three shots in the second half, coupled with Fripp’s defense leading to a series of fast-break points-Hofstra scored 30 points off turnovers, compared to just 16 for Iona-the Pride never hit a lull in the second half that would enable the Gaels to pull away.
“Well, it’s different,” Fripp said regarding the absence of the four seniors, “but it comes with the territory.”
However, the Sunday opening-night non-conference game did serve into the theme coming into the season that Hofstra needed production from the entire team. Eight players saw more than 10 minutes of action, with a set lineup not being hinted at by the coaching staff until Sam Brigham, Niki Williams, Quamme, Fripp and Jess Fuller played the final five minutes together.
Luckily for Kilburn-Steveskey and the rest of the coaching staff, the five-women lineup proved effected, as the Pride found themselves down 55-50 when Fripp entered the game for Rogers late in the contest, and proceeded to outscore Iona 12-4 down the stretch.
Fuller added to the Pride attack with nine points and 10 rebounds. Her inside presence, which did not show up on the scoreboard, was key as well, with Iona only managing 18 points in the paint.
Thazina Cook and Lauren DeFalco led the way for Iona, scoring 13 and 12 points respectively. However, the two were largely ineffective down the stretch, with Cook shooting one-for-ten in the second half, and DeFalco not hitting a three-pointer for the final 28 minutes of the contest.
The Pride next takes on Rider tonight in New Jersey, in a game that will be broadcast on WRHU. After a game of looking at what some of the newcomers to the team brought to the table, there may be some more consistency in Hofstra’s lineup during the 7 p.m. contest, which will be their last game before they head to Maine next weekend for the 2007 Dead River Company Classic.