The Hofstra women’s basketball team suffered one of its worst losses of the season on Sunday, Feb. 16, against the Tribe of the College of William & Mary at the Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The Pride lost by a score of 71-42, trailing for the entirety of the game. William & Mary was firing on all cylinders early on, scoring the first 19 points of the game. The Pride didn’t make a field goal until Marianne Kalin’s second-chance layup with 3:18 left in the first quarter. A jumper from JaKayla Brown was Hofstra’s only other shot made in the first quarter, as they trailed 27-4 heading into the second. The Tribe’s lead would not fall below 20 points for the rest of the game.
“We had a slow start, which we’ve struggled with all year long,” said Hofstra head coach Danielle Santos Atkinson. “That’s been an Achilles’ heel for us. If you look at the [other] three quarters of the game … it’s a six-point game, so that energy and intensity to start the game is something we’re still looking for; [it’s] still something we have to be able to do. [We have to] come out with confidence, be able to play with confidence and really believe.”
Jaylen Hines led the way for the Pride, scoring 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting. She was the only player for Hofstra to shoot above 50% from the field, and she collected five rebounds as well. Caria Reynolds grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds to go with her seven points. Sandra Karsten hit the Pride’s only three-pointer of the game, and she led the team with three assists.
For William & Mary, Bre Bellamy and Victoria Reynolds both reached double digits in scoring. Bellamy had 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting and seven rebounds, and Reynolds finished with 13 on 6-of-8 from the field with a game-high of five assists.
The Pride was outperformed in almost every category, but the team’s one advantage stands out: The Pride held a 35-30 edge in rebounding over the Tribe. Sixteen of Hofstra’s rebounds came on the offensive glass, translating to 15 second-chance points. The Pride also shot 13-for-16 on free throws, taking twice as many attempts as William & Mary.
“We did a better job rebounding tonight,” Santos Atkinson said, “which is something we really needed to do. We also needed to keep them off the free-throw line, and I thought we did a better job of that, only sending them to the line eight times for seven points.”
The loss is the 15th in a row for the Pride, bringing their record this season to 3-21 and 0-13 in Colonial Athletic Association play. The team will look to break the losing streak at home on Friday, Feb. 21, when the Pride hosts Towson University at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
