Brown powers Pride past Northeastern for second-straight CAA win
The Hofstra Pride women’s basketball team earned their second-straight win in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play as they defeated the Northeastern University Huskies by a score of 68-57 at the Cabot Athletic Center on Thursday, Jan. 7.
The Pride was led in scoring by junior JaKayla Brown who scored a career-high 23 points while shooting 5-of-11 from the field. 12 of Brown's points came from the free throw line, where she went 12-of-14. She also had the second-most rebounds for the team with five. Jaylen Hines added 13 points and led the team with six rebounds, while Jahsyni Knight scored 10.
"[My team has] a lot of confidence in me," Brown said after the game. "They find me in the spots where I want to shoot at, where I’m efficient at, so I work on that every day at practice.”
The Huskies took an early 5-0 lead in the first quarter, but the Pride stormed back by scoring 14 unanswered points to take a nine-point lead heading into the second quarter.
With 5:40 remaining in the second quarter, Northeastern guard Maddie Vizza cut the Huskies deficit to just 7 with a 3-pointer of her own. The Pride responded by outscoring the Huskies 6-0 over the remainder of the first half to extend their lead to 30-17.
Hofstra maintained their advantage throughout the third,and they led the Huskies 48-30 heading into the final quarter.
A 15-2 run in the fourth quarter brought the Huskies within striking distance as the Pride's lead was cut to just five.
A jumper from Brown followed by four consecutive made free throws, two apiece from Hines and Brown, pushed the Pride's advantage back to double-digits with 3:09 left to play.
After several fouls led to free throws on both ends, Northeastern's Stella Clark made a layup to cut Hofstra'slead to 61-55 with 1:24 remaining. The Pride then found the basket on 7-of-8 free throw attempts over the remainder of the contest to keep the Huskies at bay.
“We were able to shoot the ball with confidence,” said Hofstra head coach Danielle Santos Atkinson of the win. "[We] moved the ball really well today; [we] were able to make the extra pass. We were looking to push in transition, and when we pushed in transition and got to the paint, we were shooting high-percentage shots."
The Pride finished with season-highs of 13 steals and 23 made free throws. They shot 50 percent from the field throughout the game and outscored the Huskies 36-24 in the paint.
Hofstra's record now sits at 4-5 for the season, but the team has improved their record in CAA play to 2-1. The Pride and the Huskies will meet for the second game of their doubleheader on Saturday, Jan. 9 at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex at 2 p.m.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
