The New York University women's basketball team opened its 2016-17 season defeating the Stevens Institute of Technology 60-48 on Tuesday evening, November 15, in Hoboken, NJ.
The victory over the 24th-ranked Ducks (
d3hoops.com preseason poll) was the Violets' 18th-straight in season openers.
NYU set the tone early, outscoring the hosts 25-10 in the first quarter behind seven points each from senior captain
Kaitlyn Read and junior
Kayla Patterson.
"For us, what we've tried to work on was the identity of our team being our defense," said NYU Head Coach
Lauren Hall-Gregory. "I felt the defense helped us create offense early tonight. More importantly, when we hit some offensive droughts we were able to continue to play great defense and get stops."
Stevens Tech battled back after the first quarter, closing to within five on several occasions, but the Violets always had an answer. Two of those answers were fourth quarter three-pointers from freshman
Annie Barrett, who finished with 14 points in her collegiate debut.
Inside the Box Score:
- Patterson finished her NYU debut with a double-double (10 points, 12 rebounds).
- Barrett drained four three-pointers on the night and also added six rebounds and a team-best three assists.
- Read joined Barrett and Patterson in double-figures, finishing with a game-high 15 points to go along with three steals.
"I challenged Kaitlyn to play better help-side defense and that was crucial today," added Hall-Gregory. "Being able to step in and take a charge takes courage, and she did that twice tonight."
- Freshman
Lauren Brown grabbed seven rebounds in just nine minutes of action.
- NYU's largest lead of 17 points came midway through the second quarter. The Violets led for all but 1:18 in the contest.
"This is the first year I struggled to figure out the personality of our team, and tonight showed we can count on a variety of our players to make big plays," concluded Hall-Gregory.
The Violets return to action this weekend when they host a pair of games as part of the annual NYU Tip-Off Classic. NYU opens up the Classic on Saturday, November 19, with a 6pm contest against local-rival Baruch College before taking on UMass-Boston on Sunday, November 20, at 5pm. Both games will be played at the Hunter College Sportsplex in Manhattan.
