By: Dylan O'Loughlin
The women of the Brockport Golden Eagles basketball team played their best game of the season, until the fourth quarter came around. Brockport turned a six-point lead into a seven-point loss to the Geneseo Knights, 67-60.
Zairea Hannah led the stat sheet for the Golden Eagles with a 16 point and 20 rebound double-double. Kylie Snow led the game with 27 points for Geneseo.
"I'd actually like to guard Kylie Snow as she has 25 points right now," Brockport head coach Corrine Jones said.
That sentence perfectly represents the first half for the Knights, as Brockport did not have an answer for the stellar scoring of Snow. She was able to put up 25 of Geneseo's 34 first half points as she buried seven triples to rack up that total.
Even though Brockport could not stop the scoring of Snow, they still found themselves in the game. Hannah started right where she left off against Fredonia as she got the first few buckets for the Golden Eagles, grabbing six points within the first five minutes of the first. Ana Lee got on the board quickly as well after recent scoring struggles, two three-pointers to help Brockport cut the lead Snow created. Brockport shot 43% from the field and 55% from beyond the arc, but 13 turnovers found the Golden Eagles down 34-32 at the half.
"I think we do need to do a better job of seeing openings," Jones said. "Touch the paint, hit the three-point arc. We can't touch the paint and pass it to the paint again because they're doing a great job sagging and guarding the paint. So, I think we got to talk about where the ball goes next after we hit the paint."
The Golden Eagles were able to do that as they committed only six turnovers the rest of the game. Brockport played a great third quarter. An area where the Golden Eagles have been outscored by 16 throughout the season, they got a rare win 21-13 in the third. Seven players for Brockport got points on the board in the third, the most coming from Stephanie Jean-Baptiste as she had five. Hannah Lee, Hali Lucia, Zoe Zutes, Mandy Brink, and Kelsey Morgans all donated to the scoreboard to go along with her. When it hit the fourth quarter, it was polar opposites.
Zairea Hannah grabbed 20 rebounds in the loss. (Photo Credits: Liv Metz/Brockport Athletics)
After an all-around scoring quarter, Brockport could not get any to fall in the fourth. They shot 2-15 from the field and 1-12 from the three-point arc. The Golden Eagles, in the third, were able to get more access in the paint, Geneseo completely denied it in the fourth. The Knights collapsed on Hannah when she was in the paint and didn't allow her to connect on passes to three point shooters and when they did it rarely went in.
"We just could not knock down our shots," Lee said. "We couldn't get the ball moving as much as we wanted too. I think we just got to learn from this and communicate when things aren't going our way instead of getting silent."
With the shooting struggles of Brockport, Geneseo capitalized. Snow was denied the ball the rest of the game, but with that, Kerry Dennin picked up the slack. Dennin, who had five points in the first, would finish with 18 on the day. She had seven of those points in the fourth and hauled in 10 rebounds to give her a double-double. The Knights would inevitably leave the game open for the Golden Eagles with bad shooting at the charity stripe, shooting 9-17, but Brockport could not buy a bucket. Geneseo would end up winning this quarter 20-7, and defeat Brockport in a fourth quarter comeback victory.
"I think it comes from practice," Lee said. "I think we can learn from this game and apply all the things we learn in practice. Then we can see it on the court for the next time and that'll hopefully be a different result and we come out on top. We can only learn from this, it sucks that we lost, but we will come back even stronger."
Brockport goes back to the loss column as they sit at .500 again at 8-8 and still can't muster a win streak. Brockport now sits sixth in the SUNYAC standings and in the final spot of the SUNYAC playoffs while Geneseo improves to 12-4 and sits comfortably in third in the standings.
Brockport needs to learn from this one as it is now time to start playing opponents again. Starting with a team they played this past Tuesday, Fredonia. That game is set for Tuesday, January 23rd at 5:30 p.m.
Comments