By Nick Pipitone
Last week, the Pride women’s basketball team was finally able to snap a bizarre 13-game win-loss streak that stretched from late December to early February. Now, right after overcoming a pretty substantial psychological barrier, the Pride might have fallen right back into another inauspicious streak.
After Sunday’s 78-76 home overtime loss to UNC-Wilmington, the Pride has lost back-to-back overtime games. The losses mark the first time the Pride has ever played in two consecutive overtime games and breaks the season record for overtime appearances at three.
The Pride started the game with an 11-0 run to take an early 14-2 lead, but the Seahawks were able to cut the margin down to seven going into halftime. In the second half, the Seahawks got within five and neither team was up by as much for the remainder of regulation.
With only 10 seconds remaining in the game, UNC-Wilmington’s Megan Samis drained a three-pointer to send the game into overtime, where the Seahawks went on to win. The loss evened the Pride’s mark at 11-11 and 6-7 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) while the Seahawks improved to 6-16 and 3-10.
Sophomore Lana Harshaw posted a career- and team-high of 20 points along with nine rebounds in her return to the starting lineup while Lizanne Murphy had her conference-leading 13th double-double of the season. Cigi McCollin was relatively quiet, playing a sparse 29 minutes and scoring an unusually low nine points on 4-for-12 shooting. The Pride only managed to shoot 28 and 17 percent in the second half and extra period, respectively, allowing the torrid Seahawks to come back and steal the victory.
Along with last Friday’s 73-71 overtime loss at James Madison University, the Pride is in a two-game losing skid and a back-to-back overtime losing streak. But have the past two games really affected the team’s psyche?
“We’re not that bright to be into the psychological stuff,” head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “We just have to learn lessons and move on, in both wins and losses.”
The lesson the Pride might have picked up Sunday is that it might take them a little extra time to get accustomed to having Harshaw play regular minutes. The forward has played sparingly over the past month while nursing a knee injury, but now expects to regain her regular spot in the starting lineup in the final five games of the season.
“As long as I see her continue to play at that level, I’m going to keep her out there,” Jack said. “Once she gets back into the feel of things, the mesh [in the lineup] is going to be a lot better.”
Not only will the cohesion of the team improve, but note Harshaw’s low-post play will definitely help the Pride continue to out-rebound teams down the stretch. According to Jack, the 6-foot Harshaw “can rebound against anybody in the conference.” Harshaw’s 6.2 rebounds-per-game is good for third on the team and bolsters an already solid rebounding duo of Murphy and center Vanessa Gidden.
It’s the one area of the game Jack stresses the most, and will make a special effort to focus on in today’s game at Virginia Commonwealth. In their last game against VCU, the Pride was beaten 75-69 and out-rebounded significantly.
“Isn’t that a trip?” coach Jack joked. “I don’t care who we play-we better not be getting out-rebounded. We really paid a dear price for that.”
And with Harshaw back in the lineup, the Pride should have the advantage in rebounding and, most importantly, the psychological edge.