Hofstra women's basketball bested by Northeastern

The Hofstra University women’s basketball team fell to the Northeastern University Huskies by a score of 66-53 on Sunday, Jan. 14, at the Cabot Center in Boston, Massachusetts. The Pride falls to 7-7 on the season and 1-2 in Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) play, while this win improves the Huskies to 6-8 on the year and 2-2 in CAA play.

It was the first quarter that doomed the Pride. Despite scoring the first point of the game due to a technical foul on the Huskies, the Pride gave up a 16-0 run to Northeastern, giving the Huskies an early 16-2 lead. The Pride suffered from self-inflicted wounds throughout the first quarter, with five turnovers and five fouls in the first six minutes of the game. The Huskies dominated on both sides of the ball, holding the Pride to only two field goals in the first quarter. Northeastern’s offensive explosion was punctuated by a buzzer-beating layup by Maddie Vizza that gave the Huskies a 28-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Pride tied or outscored the Huskies in every quarter after the first, but the hole they got stuck in was too much to overcome.

“That first quarter killed us; we got ourselves down 20,” said head coach Danielle Santos Atkinson. “In every quarter after that, we’d win [or] tie; it’s a different ballgame. We were able to create some chaos in the second, third and fourth quarters.”

The Pride put forth a dismal first-half shooting performance, only making five of their 26 shot attempts. Their shooting improved dramatically in the second half, with a 35.3 field goal percentage in the third and fourth quarters. Despite the improvement, the 20-point deficit that the Pride faced at halftime was too much to overcome.

“The ball didn’t go in the basket tonight,” Santos said very simply.

Defensively, Hofstra had some struggles, giving up 66 points on 45.7% shooting with seven 3-pointers from the Huskies. Northeastern killed the Pride in transition, scoring 19 points on the fast break.

“We gave them a ton of easy baskets, especially in transitions, that came back to bite us,” Santos said. "We knew they like to get out in transition, that they would push the ball, that they like to push the tempo. That was a huge one for us; we weren’t as great in that category.”

Despite the early domination from Northeastern, the Pride made a run at a fourth quarter comeback, starting the quarter on a 10-0 run to cut the Huskies’ lead to 51-44. Following the surge, Northeastern shut the door, scoring the next seven points and putting the game away.

The Huskies had four players in double figures: Yirsy Quéliz with 11 points, Vizza with 12, Deja Bristol with 15 and Derin Erdogan with 18. Bristol also led her team with 12 rebounds, posting a double-double. Despite not scoring any points, Jaelyn Batts was a key distributor for the Huskies, dishing out seven assists.

Emma Von Essen led Hofstra in scoring with 10 points, adding four rebounds and an assist. Defensively, Brooke Anya anchored the Pride, with five rebounds, two steals and three assists.

The Pride will next take the court on Friday, Jan. 19, against the Drexel University Dragons. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Alexis Friedman