By: Dylan O’Loughlin
The Brockport Golden Eagles Women’s Basketball squad hosted the SUNY Poly Wildcats after coming off its season-high 91 points against St. John Fisher last Saturday. The Golden Eagles rode that momentum, as Brockport jumped out to a 11-point first quarter lead it only increased en route to an 85-62 victory.
“I thought we did a great job rebounding and that’s something that we talked about coming off the weekend,” Brockport head coach Corinne Jones said. “In February, and when you get lucky enough, in March you got to rebound so we have to start developing that habit and be consistent with it. So that was what I was most proud of.”
The game started with SUNY Poly opening up a five-point lead, but the Golden Eagles responded with an 11-0 run of their own to take an 11-5 lead it kept the rest of the way. Brockport created the run off of turnovers, causing eight turnovers thanks to seven steals for 10 points.
Leading the way was sophomore guard Peyton Maneri with eight points, two steals and an assist in the opening quarter. The sophomore was coming off the flu, but that didn’t matter when it came gametime.
“I didn’t get to participate in the last game so I really wanted to come back from the jump and I think the team really stuck together and benefitted,” Maneri said. “Our biggest focus is defense. We know our offense will come from the defense so I think that’s our biggest target in games. We got to get our hands on balls and we know that’s our pace so we do it.”
From there, it was all Brockport. Up 15-11 with 1:39 left in the first, The Golden Eagles kept on turning defense into offense, going on a 17-0 run that carried into the second quarter. The Wildcats did not find a bucket until five minutes left in the second as Brockport won the quarter 16-4 and took a 38-15 lead.
Overall, it was a 23-4 run for Brockport thanks to a combo of turnovers and rebounding. The Golden Eagles earned 17 points off turnovers and 10 second-chance points in the opening 20 to take a 23-point lead.
In the third quarter, Poly put up 22 points shooting 38% from the field, but the Golden Eagles got hot. Brockport ended up winning the quarter by 10, scoring 32 points with seven different Lady Eagles putting points on the board.
Brockport shot 11-for-17 (65%) from the field and 5-for-8 from beyond the arc (62%) in the quarter. It was senior guard Stephanie Jean-Baptiste who netted seven of her game-high 16 points to lead the way for the Golden Eagles. The leading scorer in the Empire 8 (19.1 PPG) continued to stay hot even after her 41-point career high weekend against St. John Fisher in the last outing.
“I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself to do anything out the box or crazy,” Jean-Baptiste said. “I just played my game shared the ball with my teammates and we did our thing.”
Brockport entered the fourth with a 70-37 lead, but the Wildcats had their best quarter yet, winning the final 10 minutes 25-15 to make the final score a 23-point difference. Despite losing the quarter, everyone had their fingerprints on the game, as 13 of the 14 Golden Eagles scored in the victory. To go along with that, Brockport caused 23 turnovers for 25 points and won the rebounding battle 57-33 with 27 points coming from second chance efforts.
“After that Nazareth loss, we really put a strong emphasis on turnovers and second chance efforts,” Jean-Baptiste said. “So anything they did we wanted to match it and be better. We wanted that matchup to go differently than how it went at Naz.”
Jean-Baptiste led the way with 16 points, five rebounds and four assists while junior guard Brianna Carey finished with 11 points, five boards and two assists. Sophomore guard Jackie Kozakiewicz reached double-figures with 10 points while Maneri stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals. Junior guard Mandy Brink followed with eight points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals while Madison Misser added eight points and three boards. Sophomore forward Claire Turner ended with five points and hauled in 11 rebounds as well while first year Lila Lovgren also scored five points. Ava Howie (4), Mallory Turner (3), Casey Mahony (3), Addy VanDewater (2) and Josie Wray (2) rounded out the scoring.
For the Wildcats, first year Isabella Kroll netted 13 points to lead the way with 12 coming from three-point land while senior Kelsey Meca followed with 12 points. Alivia Turk posted nine points while Kayla Wilson and Amiyah Ferebee chipped in seven points apiece. Alysa Jackson knocked down two triples for six points.
With the win, its now Brockport’s 10th in the last 11 outings. Despite already clinching playoffs, the Golden Eagles still have the mentality that they’ve had since the beginning of the season.
“We’re just going to go out and play how we play,” Maneri said. “Nothing’s different, nothing changes we’re just going to be us and focus on us.”
Brockport improves to 16-7 on the season and 12-2 in conference play while the Wildcats fall to 7-16 and 3-11 in Empire 8 play. The Golden Eagles are back on its home floor for Senior Day tomorrow, Saturday Feb. 14 as the Golden Eagles host the Utica Pioneers (7-16, 3-11) who are fighting for their playoff lives. Tip off is scheduled for 2 p.m.
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