Women's Basketball's Big Second-Half Rally Falls Just Short in 46-37 Loss

Sam Landers scored 11 points and made an important layup with under a minute left as Stony Brook survived to register a 46-37 win over UAlbany in an America East Conference women's basketball contest on Tuesday evening at Pritchard Gymnasium. Trailing 41-20 midway through the second half, the Great Danes made a triumphant comeback by rattling off 15 unanswered points before Landers' layup and three free throws iced the Seawolves' second straight victory and third overall in conference play.

Stony Brook (5-13, AE 3-3), which held a 28-17 halftime lead, scored the only bucket before the first media timeout in what started as a sloppy second half of cold shooting between the teams. After Keyana Williams made a lefty layup for the Great Danes, Landers hit a three-point field goal and a running jumper to spark an 11-1 run to put the hosts ahead by a 41-20 score.

Despite its shooting struggles, UAlbany (7-10, AE 0-4) did not give up and embarked on a 15-0 run to close the gap to six at 41-35 by the final media timeout with 3:23 left. Julie Forster scored six points during the stretch, while Ebone Henry had a three-pointer that hit off the back iron and off the backboard before finding its way in. Defensively, UAlbany kept Stony Brook off the scoreboard for 9:16 until Landers, the Seawolves' player of the game, came down the left baseline and made a layup for the game's final field goal.

"I thought we came out shaky, but we really gave them a good run at the end," said Forster, who hails from Long Island and recorded her third career double-double while playing in front of a large group of family and friends. "We all believed that we could have had this one."

The first 10 minutes of the game was an offensive struggle and seesaw battle that featured nine lead exchanges between the teams. Cassandra Callaway scored four straight points on two free throws and a layup to give the Great Danes a 15-12 advantage at the midway point of the period.

The Seawolves broke loose by netting 16 unanswered by the end of the half, while only allowing the visitors to net two points on a pair of free throws by Forster with 54.4 seconds remaining. Crystal Rushin keyed the run with seven consecutive points directly after the third media timeout to help give the hosts an 11-point cushion at recess.

"There was confusion on the offensive end," said head coach Trina Patterson, whose team shot just 22.6 percent from the field and went 15:45 without netting a field goal to close out the first half and start the second. "They cut off a lot of openings that we usually get, and we did not make the adjustments that we needed to. We made our own adjustments {at halftime}, and that's when we started to come back."

Forster, who was named UAlbany's player of the game, finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds and a career-high four blocked shots. The freshman walk-on player had six points, nine rebounds and three blocks in the first half alone. Henry contributed eight points, five rebounds and two steals for the Great Danes, who will host New Hampshire on Friday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m.

In addition to Horsey, Stony Brook, which shot only 34 percent from the field, got its strongest contributions from Kirsten Jeter, Rushin and Destiny Jacobs. Jeter, who was named the league's player of the week on Monday, fell just shy of a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds to go along with four steals. Rushin added seven points and had three boards, while Jacobs had three points and 12 rebounds in just eight minutes off the bench.

Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information