Roger Williams University Women’s Basketball falls short to Endicott in conference play
On Tuesday night, February 3rd, at the Campus Recreation Center, in Bristol RI, the RWU Hawks women’s basketball team lost to Endicott Gulls 60-50 in a Conference of New England (CNE) game.
Head Coach Kelly Thompson talked about their approach going into the game, “Endicott is a really good offensive team. They’re quick and fast. They have a great point guard and a lot of shooters around her. We really just were trying to keep them in front the best we can. We’re always trying to get stops so we can get out and run. Sometimes we did that okay today, but for the most part, we did not do a good job.”
“The team strategy was just to be aggressive, pay attention to detail, and execute. Like, where it doesn’t matter for points. We wanted to be really dominant on the boards, in our possessions, and executing our plays”, said Assistant Coach Chantrell Frazier.
After the first quarter, the score was 14-12 with the Gulls in front.
“I think just good team defense and movement on offense, purposeful movement on offense”, said Sakoya Sweeney from Craftsbury, Vt., referring to the plan going into the game. She commented on what she thought the team did well, “I think we communicated well on the defensive end.”
Endicott led 23–18 at the half after keeping Roger Williams at a distance. With both the Hawks and Gulls going 3-of-9 in the first half, they had trouble at the arc, according to the RWU Athletics Website.
Assistant Coach Frazier commented on how all of the coaches felt at half, “If we made the adjustments that were necessary, we could fall back into the game, and we started to do that, and unfortunately, the game didn’t come out how we wanted it to. But at the end of the day, I think when we came out of the half, we made some necessary adjustments.”
“She (Coach Thompson) got into our asses a little bit. She didn’t think it was a terrible half, but she definitely wanted us to pick it up on the offensive end, move a little bit better, a little quicker to get better shots”, Sweeney noted on how the coaches felt at halftime.
Endicott shot 33.3% on 6 of 18 shots after the break, while the Hawks improved to 50% on 5 of 10 shots, both from the field. Into the last quarter, the Gulls were still ahead 39-29, according to the RWU Athletics Website. Even though RWU and Endicott both scored 21 points in the fourth quarter, Roger Williams was unable to catch up.
Sophia Coppola from Madison, Conn., led the Hawks with 14 points, nine rebounds, a block, and a steal. Sweeney had eight points, four rebounds, and a block, while Chloe Richardson from Norwell, Mass., had nine points, three rebounds, and a steal. The Hawks concluded with seven second-chance points after scoring 22 points in the paint, according to the RWU Athletics Website.
“I think that if we make the changes that are necessary to make us the caliber team that I think that we can be, I think we can head in a better direction than what’s happened over the past few games,” said Coach Frazier.
On closing in on the end of the season, Coach Thompson remarked “I think this team has a lot of potential that is unmet right now. As we are going down the home stretch, we have four games. We are fighting to make it into the playoffs, and the key word is fighting there. We have to fight for it, and we need to execute better than we have been.”
Roger Williams (12-9, 8-4 CNE) will play at home against Gordon on Saturday, February 14th at 1pm.
