By: Sean Begin
Central Connecticut women’s basketball stole their way to a 71-66 overtime win against the Saint Francis-Brooklyn Terriers on Saturday for their third conference win of the season.
“It’s great for the kids, it’s great for our confidence to have a game like that,” said Coach Beryl Piper, “and to be able to find a way to score the baskets when we needed to score the baskets, and make some defensive stops at the end when he needed to.”
In the overtime period, the Blue Devils (8-8, 3-4 NEC) drained five of their six free throw attempts and four of their seven shots, including a big three pointer from senior Jessica Babe to put the game away after four straight Terrier (13-5, 4-3 NEC) free throws.
Babe finished the game with a team high 20 points, to go along with four rebounds, three assists and four steals and scored Central’s last seven points in overtime.
“She’s a senior now so she’s a really smart player,” said Beryl of Babe. “She really is our go-to when the shot clock is winding down. She’s our go-to kid to make things happen , to be able to come off the screen and find people or create something herself.”
Central has struggled all season from the charity stripe, a trend that didn’t look to go away when the team only made 4-10 in the first half while shooting just 41.7 percent from the field, including a lowly 1-8 from behind the three-point line. The one three-pointer came on the team’s last shot of the half.
“When the game was one the line we made them, so we’re not going to look at the first half,” said Beryl of the team’s free throw shooting. “Our kids had enough guts to hit them when it mattered, they didn’t choke on the line.”
The Blue Devils bad shooting in the first half was mitigated by their work on the offensive glass, bringing down eight offensive rebounds that helped offset the 12 first half turnovers, another problem for the team this season.
The team tightened up in the second half and overtime, however, turning the ball over just ten more times after halftime. Despite the high turnover rate, the Blue Devils forced 21 of their own turnovers, including 16 steals that resulted in 30 points off turnovers to 15 for the Terriers.
Senior Lauren Arbogast led the team with five steals and eight rebounds, providing a spark for the team despite being cold from the floor, missing all five of her three point shots.
The Blue Devils continued to get highly productive minutes from their bench, despite injuries seemingly plaguing the team.
Sophomore Nicole Ferguson scored 11 off the bench, including hitting a team high three shots from behind the arc.
“That’s what Nicole does,” said beryl of Ferguson’s three-point shooting. “And the kids know that she’s a shooter for us. She has a lot of confidence in her shot. And she knows when she goes into the game that’s what we’re looking for from her to do.”
Sophomore Raven Makins didn’t score in the game but her four rebounds and three steals made her minutes valuable to the team. Brooke Bailey – who’s been limited due to injury as well – played a productive 20 minutes, scoring six points and pulling in seven rebounds.
Despite the team’s continued struggle from the free throw line, Beryl doesn’t see her team slowing down their aggressive approach to get there any time soon.
“We’re going to continue to go the foul line whether we make or miss them,” she said. “With Johnna [Fisher] and Amanda [Harrington] being out it makes us smaller and we don’t have a lot of people in the post. So it makes a difference when we can get their bigs in foul trouble.”
Both Fisher and Harrington remain day-to-day with a knee and ankle injury, respectively. Harrington had been seeing heavy minutes thanks to Fisher’s injury, but sprained her ankle last home game against Fairleigh Dickinson.
“It makes a big difference if someone’s hurting us inside so we want to get her [Harrington] back,” said Beryl.
The Blue Devils hit the road for their next game; a rematch against St. Francis-Brooklyn on Saturday.