The Hofstra University women’s basketball team had a day for the history books on Saturday, Dec. 16, as they trounced the Farmingdale State College Rams in their first-ever meeting by a score of 113-24. The win improved the Pride to 5-4 on the season and snapped a two-game skid while the Rams dropped to 4-5.
A common theme of yesterday’s game was firsts and records for the Pride. The team set four major program records on the day: most points scored, most 3-pointers made, least points allowed and highest margin of victory. In addition, three players set personal career highs in points. Emma Von Essen had 29, Selma Markisic had 20 and Brooke Anya had 16.
“It feels good … coming out here, being able to play freely and hit a career-high,” Markisic said. “It feels good, but it’s also a motivator.”
The Pride dominated in all phases of the game. Offensively, the Pride shot 55% from the field and 57% from beyond the arc. They were able to score consistently at all three levels, which led to 100 points in a game for the first time in a decade and set the program record for points in a game. Head coach Danielle Santos Atkinson was very pleased with her team’s ball movement and commitment to finding good shots.
“[It’s something we work on] endlessly,” Santos said. “What our execution looks like, our spacing on the floor, getting in rhythm with each other and how we play with each other, how we share the ball and move the ball. We work on it every single day, and we’ve just got to continue to get better at it. I think this was a huge step in the right direction in the growth for us offensively.”
Defensively, the Pride suffocated Farmingdale and forced 32 turnovers. This defensive pressure also allowed the Pride to hold the Rams to just 22.9% from the field. A sticking point for the Pride over their last few losses was their struggles in transition defense. Santos was much happier with their defensive effort this time around.
“That’s been a huge thing for us all week, that we had to improve on going back and looking at some of our transition efforts from the last few games,” Santos said.
The Pride dominated on the boards as well, pulling down 47 rebounds compared to Farmingdale’s 17.
“We work on it every day,” Santos said. “The biggest focus for us is we’ve gotta box out, we’ve gotta limit teams on the other end. We want to make sure we’re coming up with those defensive rebounds. Offensively, it helps to give your shooters confidence to be able to shoot it and let it fly when you know that there’s a second chance opportunity coming.”
Hofstra will travel to the nation’s capital to take on the 2-10 Howard University Bison of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference on Thursday, Dec. 21. Tip-off is set for 12 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Matteo Bracco/Hofstra Athletics
