By Mike Rudin – Sports Editor Five days prior to the 2015 CAA women’s tournament, the Hofstra men’s basketball team lost to the William & Mary Tribe men's team 92-91 in double overtime in the semifinals.
Now the tables have turned as the Hofstra Pride women’s basketball team eliminated the William & Mary Tribe women’s team, 64-51, in the quarterfinals of the 2015 CAA tournament. Hofstra advances to the semifinals in the CAA tournament against the Delaware Blue Hens.
“I couldn’t be more proud of my team tonight and how they performed,” said head coach Krista Kilburn-Steveskey.
The two teams compiled 39 turnovers on the night with the Pride posting 20 turnovers while the Tribe put up 19. Despite committing one more turnover, Hofstra outscored William & Mary 22 points to 17 off turnovers.
Angie White spearheaded the Pride offense with a team-high 17 points and 12 rebounds – three offensive and nine defensive – to earn a double-double performance in her first appearance in the CAA tournament. Despite being the prime target for William & Mary’s defense, she still managed to have a superb game.
“My teammates were the ones who told me they were tripling me or doubling me,” said White. “So once I passed it back out and they figured we can score from our guards, the guards trusted me to pass it back in and score.”
Krystal Luciano put up the second-most three different offensive categories with 12 points, nine rebounds – three offensive and six defensive – and four assists on the night. Luciano demonstrated her leadership skills and ability to control the game with excellent passing, ball handling and execution on the court.
“They were sagging off me since the beginning, so I took the shots that they gave me. I basically took what the defense gave me, luckily it was in a positive way,” said Luciano.
2015 CAA rookie of the year Ashunae Durant contributed as the third Pride player to put up double figures in points, scoring an even dozen against the Tribe. Durant also placed third in rebounds with six boards in the game for the Pride.
Her playing time was hindered to 21 minutes with four personal fouls in the game that kept her at bay.
“She doesn’t make dumb fouls. She’s so surreal to the game when she got one of the last fouls, she usually on point,” said Kilburn-Steveskey. “Very smart player and way above her years.”
The game started off slow with both teams putting up three points in total within the first two minutes of regulation, the Pride led 2-1.
The Pride and the Tribe could not make baskets, even with the constant turnovers from both teams. Hofstra had three in the first two minutes while William & Mary committed two.
After a jumper from the Tribe and a couple of missed shots from Edeferioka, Luciano fired a three down the hoop that got the Pride going. With Luciano’s basket, Hofstra shot 7-for-15 as a team in a seven minute-12 second span and took a 17-8 lead afterwards at the 10:48 mark.
The Pride capped off the trend with a 6-0 run, thanks to a 4:40 scoring drought by the Tribe.
William &Mary struggled with four turnovers, a 3-for-11 shooting ratio during the trend and the same scoring drought extended past the first ten minutes of regulation.
Hofstra began to falter with missed shots and constant turnovers that eventually put the Tribe within one point behind at the 6:16 mark.
Marlena Tremba’s three-pointer for William & Mary put the Pride on their toes as their lead vanished, Loftus gave a little breathing room with a triple but the Tribe answered back inside the arc.
Yet Krystal Luciano single-handedly lifted the Pride out of danger with a 7-0 run all scored by her. Luciano sandwiched two layups in between a three for seven unanswered points and raised Hofstra’s lead to nine points with less than a minute to go in the first.
Sydni Epps added two more points with a jumper to put Hofstra up 31-23 by halftime.
Luciano’s hot hands momentarily got cold by in the opening 30 seconds of the second half with back-to-back missed three-point shots. She regained some of her fire and made a jumper for the first basket of the second half.
After a free throw by Jazmen Boone on William & Mary, Hofstra went on a 8-0 to push their lead well into the double digits and led by 17 points slightly under 15 minutes by a second.
Afterwards, William & Mary tried to fight back with an assorted array of four free throws, one layup and one jumper but back-to-back threes from Luciano and a jumper from Durant maintained Hofstra’s lead by 19 points.
Luciano’s first three pushed Hofstra lead to momentarily graze 20 points – the largest separation by the Pride in the game. Some complications came way for the Pride though with Ashunae Durant’s fourth personal foul occurred with 13 minutes and 26 seconds left on the clock. Her playing time became severely limited to avoid being fouled out.
With 10:24 to winding down, William & Mary made a bid for a comeback in the next seven minutes and four seconds by outscoring the Pride 15-5 and cut the Tribe’s deficit down to 10 points. Tremba became a thorn in the Pride’s side with two triples during the offensive surge.
After four unanswered points by Hofstra Anjie White to raise the bar for William & Mary at 14 points with 1:17 left, Boone worked out a layup and Tremba gave the Tribe life with a three to slash Hofstra’s lead down to nine points – the first time the lead sank to single digits since the first minute of the second half.
Durant sealed the deal with four consecutive free throws to put the Pride ahead by 13 points at the final buzzer.
Marlena Tremba led the Tribe with 17 points, she shot 5-for-13 outside the three-point perimeter.
The Hofstra Pride paved the way forward to the CAA semifinals against the Delaware Blue Hens on March 14 at 3:30 p.m. at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.