The SUNY Plattsburgh women’s basketball team continued its regular season last Friday in Memorial Hall against Fredonia and lost 70-58.
The Cardinals were led by senior guard/forward Taylor Durnin, matching her career-high 28 points, five rebounds, and two steals. She made a career-high 11 field goals, including a career-high six made three-pointers.
“The last couple of weeks have been tough for her, so it was nice to see her relaxed and playing the game she’s capable of playing,” head coach Cheryl Cole said. “She made a lot of shots, and when you make shots, your confidence soars, and she really got it going that game. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get the win, but I was very pleased seeing her get her confidence and swagger back.”
Senior forward Taylor Clare added 10 points, seven rebounds, and two steals, while sophomore guard Kayla Doody dished out five assists, despite scoring just one point on 0-for-10 shooting from the floor.
PSU shot 29% from the floor, 24% from the three-point line and just 50% from the charity stripe and trailed the entire game. The Cards were outrebounded 46-35 but forced Fredonia to 22 turnovers.
“We’ve been really good at putting pressure on people on the defensive end and taking care of the ball on the offensive end,” Cole said. “You don’t want to be ultra-aggressive that you’re giving up high percentage layups and things of that nature. Usually, when things are working on the defensive end, it brings real good momentum to the floor.”
PSU scored only five points in the second quarter.
“We have a tendency of going flat for an extended period of time where we’re unable to get our offense going and the other team is capitalizing on it,” Cole said. “Sometimes we take ill-advised shots or long threes early in the shot clock. Usually, we try too hard individually and try to do things ourselves. I don’t believe it’s out of selfishness.”
The Cards then faced off against Buffalo State last Saturday at Plattsburgh but suffered a heartbreaking loss, by one point, with a final score of 59-58. The game included 14 lead changes and seven tied scores.
“A great game if you’re sitting in the stands watching it, but an awful game to lose by just a point,” Cole said. “They’re one of the better teams in the conference, and we’ve proven throughout this season that we can play with the best teams in the conference.”
PSU was led by Durnin with 12 points, nine of which came from the fourth quarter. Doody added 11 points, dished out three assists and had two steals. Junior guard Hanna Whitney added 11 points and reeled in six rebounds. Freshman forward Misa Dowdell scored a career-high 10 points off the bench in just 13 minutes. Sophomore guard Ly’rell Walker scored six points, grabbed eight rebounds, and handed out three assists. Junior guard Theresa Quinn and freshman guard Mya Smith both had three assists.
The Cards shot 36% from the floor, 38% from beyond the arc, and 58 percent from the free-throw line. PSU turned the ball over 19 times and was outrebounded 44-38. Twenty nine of the Cards’ points came off the bench.
PSU now falls to 6-15 overall (3-11 SUNYAC) and has lost 5 games in a row. The Cards visit Oswego State (6-13 overall, 2-11 SUNYAC) today, at 5:30 p.m. and hope to come out on top against a team with a similar record. Then, the Cards will take on No. 2 SUNY Cortland (17-3 overall, 11-2 SUNYAC) tomorrow at 2 p.m.
“This season, there have been plenty of times where we need just one or two more possessions to win a game,” Cole said. “It’s going to be a fun weekend since it’s our last road weekend of the season. We’re going to go to Oswego and Cortland and hopefully have two complete, full-effort halves. We came up just short against Cortland at home, so let’s beat them there.”
