BY MARCUS HENRY
As the Stony Brook women's basketball team put the finishing touches on their 52-47 win over Sacred Heart, I thought back to last season. The squad lost two of the all-time great players in team history in Mykeema Ford and Jessica Smith. Leah Getz and Kelly Watson also departed. So did head coach Maura McHugh.
That's four starters, including the America East Player of the Year (Ford) and first-team All-America East selection (Smith), and a coach from an 18-10 team that missed the WNIT by an inch last year.
The team started the season on a positive note with a 66-57 win over Iona last Friday. The Seawolves followed that up with a dreadful 98-35 loss to UConn on Sunday. But you have to give them a pass on that one as few teams are going to come close to beating UConn this year.
The lopsided loss to the Huskies notwithstanding, this Seawolves team could end up being better than everyone thought. The key will be consistency on offense. The last couple of years Ford and Smith carried the load. With those two gone, it's going to take everyone in the rotation to keep the team in games. And so far that has been the case. Aly Young scored 14 points against Sacred Heart and 13 points against Iona. Dana Ferraro has eclipsed double figures in each of the last two games. Jodie Plikus (11) and Joia Daniels (10) both scored in double figures against Iona.
At some point first-year head coach Michele Cherry is going to have to find a go-to player at crunch time. But the season is less than a week old, so a feeling-out process will be in effect.