On Saturday Jan. 28, the women's basketball team defeated SUNY Brockport, 49-35 in its only game of the week.
"I think the ladies came to play – they showed up, they played hard, they competed and we haven't done that consistently so that was certainly a good sign," said head coach Scott Hemer. "The downside was that we struggled dearly in the first half to put the ball in the basket."
Early in the game, the Knights only managed to score a total of 19 points on 29 percent shooting with 12 turnovers, proceeding into halftime with the score deadlocked. In the second half, however, Geneseo came out strong, shooting 40 percent from the field and limiting the Golden Eagles to a mere 16 points defensively.
"Not only did we find ways to put the ball in the basket just a little bit more in the second half, we also dug deep to do a better job defensively and held them to less than they had in the first half, so all those are good signs," said Hemer.
Senior Bri Dunton paced the Knights, scoring 13 points with three steals and senior Katelyn Charbonneau hit 5-10 from the field and 2-5 from beyond the arc for 12 points. Junior Melissa Graham grabbed 11 rebounds while sophomore Lea Sobieraski and freshman Shannon McGinnis added eight points apiece.
"Moving forward we certainly still have room for improvement and hopefully the team commits to making those improvements heading into this weekend with two big games," said Hemer. "Actually, at this point, they're all big games for us."
This weekend, Feb. 3 and 4, the Knights host SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Oneonta, two teams that are currently third and first in the SUNYAC standings, respectively. Realistically, this weekend could decide whether or not Geneseo enters the playoffs as a top seed or a fourth or fifth seed. With so much at stake, a lot will fall on the team's first year players to step up and recognize what is being required of them.
"I believe that mathematically [the freshmen] understand what each game means moving forward, but I'm not sure they fully understand the impact of the games on the culture we've worked to create for this program," said Hemer. "I'm not sure the team as a whole has communicated well enough amongst themselves to relay that message. Communication is a big thing for us at this point."
"At this point, the coaching staff feels that we've done as much as we probably can to put them in a position to be successful each and every night," said Hemer. "The challenge is for them to figure out how to do that collectively."