Hofstra women’s basketball fell short on Friday, Jan. 4, to the College of William & Mary 60-55 in their first Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) conference game after overcoming a 12-point deficit in the second half.
Hofstra’s senior guard Boogie Brozoski and junior forward Marianne Kalin each scored 17 points, with the majority coming in the second half to close William & Mary’s lead.
The Pride rallied in the third quarter and Brozoski hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to bring the Pride within two, 47-45. The Pride took advantage of their opportunities and scored nine points off of six turnovers by the Tribe in the third.
“I thought we were executing,” Brozoski said. “We had a lot of energy. We were playing within a great flow of each other and trusted each other making big stops on defense. I think we came out in the third quarter a lot more focused on executing our plays on the offensive end, and that is what I think gave us our push and our energy in the second half.”
Brozoski tied the game early in the fourth quarter, 47-47, and two minutes later gave the Pride the lead after scoring two points assisted by senior guard Sica Cuzic.
Throughout the last half of the fourth quarter the lead alternated between both teams. The Tribe held a two-point lead in the final minute and then grew their lead by five points by making six out of eight free throws.
Hofstra was unable to produce at the free throw line. They scored on four out of their 13 opportunities to result in 31 percent from the line. William & Mary outperformed Hofstra at the line scoring on 16 out of 19 chances with 84 percent.
“Obviously it is conference time and 55-60 is not necessarily surprising,” said head coachKrista Kilburn-Steveskey.
“But the opportunities that we had and the fight that we were exhibiting in parts, to come out short on [our] home court tonight is very disappointing. We have another on Sunday and we got to bounce back. We need to start listening down the stretch and we need to execute down the stretch. Two times we turned the ball over from out of bounds that we were just trying to actually get the ball in. We need to be much more definitive on that, that is not a chance to go and experiment. We didn’t have to play perfect today at all to win this ball game. We need to listen. We need to not try and be a hero when we need to ... be conservative and be disciplined. We get very undisciplined and I think that comes down with trusting your teammates and trusting your coaching staff.”
With the loss, Hofstra’s three-game win streak came to an end as William & Mary’s win streak advances to three. Up next, the Pride will stay at home to face Elon University on Sunday, Jan. 6, at 1:00 pm.
