Despite leading going into halftime, the Hofstra women’s basketball team extended their losing streak to four on Sunday, Jan. 29, at the hands of the Hampton University Pirates. The 74-55 loss brought the team’s overall record to 8-12 and 2-7 in conference.
“Going into halftime, those third and fourth quarters, we just didn’t play hard enough,” said Hofstra head coach Danielle Santos Atkinson. “We didn’t play hard enough, and we didn’t play with enough energy.”
Graduate student Brandy Thomas led Hofstra with 20 points, 13 of which came in the first half.
“We know [Thomas] can score; that’s not a question for us,” Atkinson said. “She had 10 rebounds, which was great.”
As great as Thomas’ scoring contributions were, they weren’t enough to nullify the Pride’s struggles when came to handling the ball.
“We turned the ball over 30 times,” Atkinson said. “Second half [Hampton] picked up their pressure, and we turned the ball over.”
That proved to be Hofstra’s Achilles heel, as Thomas committed 10 of the day’s 29 turnovers, off which Hampton scored 25 points.
Atkinson stayed assured that this game was not the end-all-be-all, as there is still plenty of regular season play to go for the Pride.
“We’ve got to stay connected as a team; there’s a lot of basketball left,” Atkinson said. “Once we get into that part of the season, we’ve got to step up and be ready to go. With that, we’ve got to decide what we want the second half to look like. We’ve got to make a decision: what we’re willing to give, what we’re willing to sacrifice, to lay it on the line to make sure we finish how we want to finish.”
If the Pride are going to do that, Atkinson says they have to simplify their game.
“We got to play harder; we overcomplicate the game,” Atkinson said. “The game can be simple, but you overcomplicate it when you start playing outside yourself and start doing things that you don’t do on a daily basis. When you’re doing all of those things, not playing as hard as you can, then it looks like 30 turnovers.”
Hofstra’s next appearance will come on the road against the Monmouth University Hawks. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3.
Photo courtesy of Neil Miller/Hofstra Athletics
