The women’s basketball team had gone through a 7-game losing streak up to Monday’s action against Hood College on the road. By that point, one may expect a team to operate in a disengaged manner and continue to slip away from the pursuit of victory entirely. The noise that could surround a collective in that moment can increase and expand depending on the audience consuming the action.
Rather than slip into that mindset, however, the Mustangs have maintained a positive outlook. As other quotes have previously stated, the foundation is there to an extent, and they’d been picking up on some redeeming habits to place themselves in a winning position. It eluded them for that much time, but they weren’t far removed from the picture as long as they started to clean up some of these tendencies.
These players have each other’s best interests at heart, displaying tremendous chemistry and the ability to play for the individual next to them in spite of what they’ve been confronting. Winning a game in these cases can come down to executing the little details within every match, capitalizing on miscues and retaining their defensive prowess for the duration of one.
All of these things culminated in Stevenson taking down Hood College 58-41 on Wednesday to end the losing streak and improve their record to 4-10 on the year.
Most everyone who touched the court in this game had some kind of impact on the eventual outcome, and that can be elaborated on as this progresses. On the scoring end, second-year guard Anaya Price and fourth-year forward Kalea Wynter each had 12-point nights to lead the team while stuffing the stat sheet with a good amount of steals and rebounds.
In 14 minutes of action, fourth-year forward Destiny Towns spurred the rebounding efforts with 7 (5 defensive) to steady the course, seeing as rebounds were even for both teams (33 total for Hood & Stevenson).
The ball was also consistently moving around amongst the team, a good sign of progress that could be carried forward. At every turn, though, it was second-year guard Janiya Ennis at the very center of these conversions, as she would finish with a game-high 7 assists.
Granted, a slow start did have Stevenson trailing 14-9 at the end of the first quarter. They’d been struggling to find a rhythm in their offensive sets, failing to convert on any of their attempts from deep (0-5 from three). However, the defensive effort was good enough to where the game was as competitive as possible by this point. The second they could hit that next gear in their execution, it felt as though they were going to flip the game on its head.
Overall advantages in this match came for Stevenson in terms of interior scoring (12-point advantage with 34 overall) and a 15-6 tally in points off of turnovers. They were able to win the battle on both ends with their speed and incorporate a taste of their own physicality to take that measure to their opponents, and it started with their work in what had typically been a point of struggle for them in all of their losses.
Most- if not all- of those consecutive losses centered around the loss of control in the 2nd quarter. As fair of a sentiment as this might’ve been, it doesn’t take into account that the past few have seen them keep close battles around this point, a large step forward relative to getting boat-raced earlier on.
The only way to go is up when you experience these kinds of slumps consistently, but what they produced in this game was truly unexpected.
“I thought we did an excellent job executing the defensive play and pace of the game. We relied on each other to share the ball and score it to get a tough road win. Our conference is tough and competitive but if we remain focused we can do great things,” head coach Jackie Boswell said.
The Mustangs shot 47% from the field during this specific quarter, tapping into a streak of efficiency they had not experienced in most of their action on the year. They were finally able to impose their own will within the flow of a game, represented best by the outright domination in a period where they scored 21 points while holding Hood to an abnormal output of just 6 total points on low efficiency. In a game of runs, they initiated a 19-1 run capped off by a pair of buckets from fourth-year forward Aliyah Jean-Jacques that they never relented again.
“Throughout the game I thought we did a good job with keeping our energy high, no matter what was happening on the court. We played our game, and that’s how we were able to come out with the win,” Jean-Jacques said.
From that point onward, they operated in cruise control to maintain an above double-digit lead and have a good amount of overall contributors on the night. It was a great showing all-around, considering that they got help from elite second-unit play on the night. Stevenson put forth 21 points off the bench, led by a 10-point night from the aforementioned Jean-Jacques in 17 minutes of play.
Overall, the first win for the women’s basketball team in pretty much a month might be seen in a multitude of ways by those on the outside looking in. However, you can’t teach heart, and no matter what lies ahead for this team, they have it.
“We’ve always battled adversity from the beginning of the season in preparation for conference play, and to see everything come together as a team and finish off strong was a great sign showing we can do this as long as we stay together,” Ennis said.
Stevenson will be back at the Owings Mills Gym for a two-game home stand with a match against York on Jan. 21st at 7:00 p.m.
