(Dover, Del.) – Sunday afternoon, the Delaware State women's basketball team (3-8, 0-1 MEAC) returned home for the first time since Dec. 7, only to fall to the visiting St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers (9-2), 68-55.
With this loss, it extended DSU's season-long losing streak to five games, while the Terriers pushed their winning streak to a season-high five games.
In the first stanza, the Lady Hornets found themselves down by two (14-12), after a Tierra Hawkins layup at the 13:12 mark. However, the Lady Terriers' ripped off 14 unanswered points, headlined by four consecutive three pointers to take a 28-12 lead with 9:45 remaining in the half.
St. Francis Brooklyn continued its hot shooting the rest of the period to outscore the Lady Hornets, 16-7, and take a 44-19 lead into the locker room.
For the half, the Terriers shot 50 percent (16-of-32) from the field, including 55 percent (6-of-11) from downtown, led by forward Jaymee Veney's 14 points (6-of-12). Veney also shot 2-for-3 (.666) from three-point range and pulled down nine rebounds.
On the glass, St. Francis Brooklyn outrebounded the Lady Hornets, 25-15.
In the case of Delaware State, Hawkins tallied 11 points (5-of-12) and eight rebounds, whereas the team's second leading scorer, Raven Bankston, struggled from the floor on just 0-for-8 shooting and no points. As a team, the Lady Hornets shot just 27 percent (8-of-30) from the field.
Facing an uphill climb, DSU slowly chipped away at the lead in the second half and managed to make it a 54-39 ball game after Bankston drained a jumper at the 10:47 mark. Although, St. Francis Brooklyn pushed its lead back to 19 on two different occasions over the next two minutes.
Nevertheless, with less than six minutes to play, Hawkins hit two free throws to cut the Terriers lead to 13, 60-47.
Unfortunately for DSU, its offense could not get over the hump and never pulled within 10 points the rest of the way, as St. Francis Brooklyn held on for the double digit victory.
When the final buzzer sounded, Delaware State bounced back from its opening offensive performance and went 11-for-24 (.458) in the second half. For the game, the Lady Hornets shot 35 percent (19-of-54) from the floor and 68 percent (17-of-25) from the charity stripe. From beyond the arc, DSU struggled throughout the afternoon to go 0-for-10.
Pouring in a game-high 26 points (9-of-19), to go along with a team-high 12 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season, meanwhile, was Hawkins in her second game back from a shoulder injury. Bankston, on the other hand, finished with 11 points on 5-for-19 shooting (.263), whereas guard/forward Deanna Harmon finished with nine points (4-of-7), nine rebounds and a game-high four steals.
Despite cooling down in the second half by scoring 24 points on 9-for-24 (.375) shooting, St. Francis Brooklyn finished the game at 45 percent (25-of-56), including 9-for-19 (.474) from long distance.
Three players also finished the game in double figures for the Terriers, led by Veney's 20-point (9-of-19) and 12-rebound performance. Guard/forward Leah Fechko (3-of-8) and guard Eilidh Simpson (3-of-9) both dropped 11 points, whereas Fechko recorded a game-high 13 rebounds and seven assists.
Team wise, the Terriers won the battle on the boards (42-34) and dished out 18 assists, compared to DSU's five.
Coming up, the Lady Hornets will back in action on Jan. 2 (5:30 p.m.) on the road against MEAC foe Howard.
