No More Home Cooking

Photo by DAVID OTERO

David Otero
Sports Editor

The LIU Post women’s basketball team suffered their second consecutive loss on Saturday, February 10 to the Roberts Wesleyan Redhawks (11-10) by a final score of 70-66. With the defeat, the Lady Pioneers (14-7) snapped their home winning streak at the Pratt Center of 17 straight wins dating back to December 30, 2011 in a non-conference battle against Franklin Pierce University.

In a game that was originally supposed to be played on Saturday, February 9, and then was delayed 30 minutes the day of the game due to a leak in the ceiling at center court, the Lady Pioneers could never establish a rhythm offensively. In addition, as a result of not being able to play with a wet spot on the floor, the game was played on a side court (still regulation length).

Lady Pioneers’ junior guard Kenyatta Sears led the team in scoring as she dropped 19 points on an efficient 6-12 shooting performance from the floor. Sears’ offensive prowess kept the Lady Pioneers in the game as she nailed five of her six attempts from beyond the arc, but it was not enough. The Lady Pioneers as a team shot 31% from the floor, and if you don’t include Sears, the rest of the Lady Pioneers went 5-23 from three-point range.

At the end of the first half, the Lady Pioneers went on a 7-0 run and trailed 32-27 to the Redhawks. Although it was a five point game, the Lady Pioneers labored through the first half and had a challenging time getting inside the paint for buckets. Through the first half, the Lady Pioneers were 3-13 from beyond the arc, and 8-19 from everywhere else on the floor.

The second half was a similar story for LIU Post as the Redhawks went on stretches of solid play on both sides of the ball, with the Lady Pioneers unable to answer back. Three points was the closest the Lady Pioneers ever got to the Redhawks and that was when the score was 46-43 with about 12 minutes left. The Redhawks kept finding a way to extend their lead as it routinely felt like it was a three or four possession game. After yet another Sears three-pointer, the deficit was narrowed with about five minutes left to play as the Redhawks only led 57-53. But once again, the Redhawks pulled away and went on a 13-6 run to make the score 70-56 with just under two minutes left to play.

The Lady Pioneers made things interesting to close out the game as they displayed toughness and did not give up as a 10-0 run cut the score to 70-66 with 21 seconds remaining in the contest. However, it was too little too late as neither team would score for the remainder of the game. The run of made baskets and stops on defense was needed with more time for the Lady Pioneers to make up a few more points.

Redhawks’ sophomore forward Marissa Sell had a monster game as she had the game-high in both points (24) and rebounds (16). As a team, the Redhawks shot 46% from the field. An odd statistic is that the Lady Pioneers once again won the turnover battle. The Lady Pioneers nearly had their season-low in turnovers as they only had 12 for the game. On the defensive side of the ball, LIU Post also forced 22 turnovers on the Redhawks, but the Lady Pioneers were unable to capitalize.

The Lady Pioneers have a quicker turnaround than normal as their next game is on Wednesday, February 13 on the road against the University of the District of Columbia (8-15). There is a 5:00 tipoff, with 4:45 pregame which can be heard on 88.1 FM and WCWP.org.