The women's basketball team relied on defense and 3-pointers as the team defeated the New Hampshire Wildcats 61-38 on Wednesday night in Durham, N.H for their third straight victory.
The team improves to 3-0 on the season, for the first time since 2008-2009.
The Pirate defense held the Wildcats to under 31 percent shooting, including sub-28 percent from behind the arc, as no Wildcat player scored in double figures.
The Pirates held the Wildcats scoreless for over 10 minutes, beginning with 7:27 remaining in the first half, and lasting two and a half minutes into the second half.
The transition defense showed up as well, only allowing nine New Hampshire points off 16 Pirate turnovers., as compared to the 21 Pirate points scored off of 15 Wildcat turnovers.
Head coach Anne Donovan said that the team is very defensive minded.
"We work on it three-quarters of every practice," Donovan said. "We're not the highest scoring team and we have inexperience in the post."
Junior guard Brittany Morris, said the team was just trying to play physically on defense.
"On defense we made sure to do the little things," Morris said. "We had to be prepared and disciplined."
The Pirates were able to put a team away early, something that the team had struggled with in their past two victories, as FGCU and Army both erased double digit leads in the final minutes.
With 9:18 remaining the Wildcats began a 5-0 run to cut the Pirate lead to 16.
Senior guard Jasmine Crew hit a three with 8:03 left on the clock, as the Pirates never lead by less than 18 the rest of the way.
Crew recorded a game-high 23 points, on 8-14 shooting, including four 3-point field goals for her third straight 20 point game.
Crew also added six rebounds, and four assists.
In the previous two games, the Pirates have struggled rebounding the basketball, but out-rebounded the Wildcats 40-26.
With their rebounding efforts, the Pirates scored 13 second chance points, and held New Hampshire scoreless on second chance opportunities.
Senior center Tajay Ashmeade led the team in rebounds, with nine, and also put up seven points.
Morris was 4-6 on 3-point field goals for 12 points, all in the first half, and believed in her ability to shoot the ball.
"My role is to be the shooter," Morris said. "I figured it would happen if I stayed focused.
For the game the Pirates shot 50 percent from beyond the arc on 10-20 shooting.
The team shot 43 percent overall from the field on 23-53 shooting.
According to Morris, the key to continuing and building on the team's early success is communication during the game.
The Pirates are back in action on Sunday, Nov. 20 as they will face the Michigan Wolverines. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.
TJ Brennan can be reached at Thomas.brennan@student.shu.edu.
