Precarious Situation For Rowan Women’s Basketball
By Jacob Keppen – Sports Writer for The Sentinel of Gloucester County Weekly Newspaper
Published in Print Edition Sentinel of GC Week of 2/7/2019
All season Rowan Women’s Basketball Coach Gabby Lisella has been said that you can’t take any opponent in the NJAC conference lightly or you’ll get taken down. This past week we saw the dynamic nature of the NJAC conference with Rowan getting knocked out of first place in the NJAC due to two big losses.
Rowan’s 58-52 loss to Stockton perfectly summarizes the danger of the NJAC conference. On paper Rowan should’ve handled the 7-15 Stockton with ease. They already defeated Stockton handily earlier in the season, and Rowan went into the game on a huge win streak. Games are not played on paper though, with Stockton upsetting Rowan in Glassboro.
Rowan played one of their worst games of the season, looking largely ineffective on offense. They couldn’t get it going from anywhere on offense , shooting 30% from the field. Stockton would also be inefficient from the field, but shot a killer 80% from the foul line. Rowan struggled with fouling all game, with Stockton getting 30 shots at the foul line. Along with their poor shooting Rowan also were sloppy with the ball, turning the rock over 18 times.
After their huge loss to Stockton Rowan could not get it going against top rivals Montclair State either, falling on the road once again to the Red Hawks 69-55. Nicole Byrne led Rowan with 13 points, while Kim Calloway led both teams with 16 points. Julia Sutton and Kayla Bush were monsters on the defensive end for the Red Hawks, both swatting away 3 shots.
Rowan’s defense simply were not able to do enough against Montclair State, not creating enough turnovers nor stopping the red Hawks from scoring much. Montclair State made shots everywhere and looked dangerous on offense all game. Rowan struggled to hit any shots, shooting 30% from the field again. This is what’s scary about Rowan, when their defensive style isn’t able to throw their opponents off of their game, the Profs offense must step up. Montclair State were also able to get to the foul line a healthy amount of times, a recurring theme for Rowan this season.
Rowan now find themselves in a precarious situation down the home stretch of the season. With three games remaining in the regular season, Rowan currently sit in second place in the NJAC. They are one game behind leaders TCNJ, but are only a game ahead of third place Montclair State and two games ahead of Rutgers-Newark who they will face at home this Saturday. These next three games against William Paterson, Rutgers-Newark, and Kean are big must win games for Rowan to get home court advantage in the NJAC conference tournament.