2008 Woodie Awards
Women Split at Stevens Tourney
Kazim Mirza
Issue date: 11/28/05 Section: Sports
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HOBOKEN, N.J. (Nov. 18-19) - The Rutgers-Newark women's basketball team competed in the Stevens Tip-Off Tournament, taking on Western Connecticut and Vassar.
Sabrina Sanchez was sensational in the premiere game against WC. She netted a career -high 24 points to accompany a game-high six steals and five rebounds. The Raiders needed every basket; Western Connecticut rallied back but came up short, handing R-N a season-opening victory with a final score of 62-60.
Sophomore forward Toni Roselli finished with 11 points, draining all three free throws after being fouled while shooting from 3-point range, giving the Raiders a 55-38 lead with 8:12 remaining.
The Colonials answered by cutting the lead to just three at 59-56 on a pair of free throws by Mallory Stevens with 1:16 left.
Senior center Christyal Anderson grabbed a game-high 15 boards to give the Raiders a 33-29 edge in rebounding.
Anderson is the only senior, and her leadership and presence was felt. She iced the game with 22 seconds left by making her only two free throws of the evening for a 61-56 lead.
"Christyal Anderson is playing as well as she has ever played," Said Coach Morris. "She's been dominant on the boards for us. This was a sign that she'll play a full year this way for us, and I think she will. It's nice to have a big strong presence in the middle."
The Raiders were pleased to make it to the final, setting them up for a possible tournament victory to commence the season.
On Saturday afternoon, the team had trouble executing down the stretch. The Raiders had a chance to win the championship, but too many blundered passes, rebounds, and scoring opportunities proved to be costly.
Needing one basket to tie it up, the Raiders had the last shot of the game but could not pull it off. Vassar snagged the win, 53-51.
The pressure that comes with college level play seemed to be an awakening for some of the younger players. To the freshmen and sophomores on the team: chalk this one up as experience, learn from it, and move on to the next game.
"Obviously things get blown up a little bit when you lose, but we need scoring and consistent team rebounding," added Morris. "We're going to have to execute on offense to get scoring."
Finding reliable scoring is going to be the issue this season for the Raiders. They can run with any team and play a solid team defense. The key to doing damage in conference play will be to keep their opponents' scoring below 60 and to find a way themselves to shoot the lights out.
Christyal Anderson and sophomore forward Eni Fageyinbo were named to the all-tournament team. Host Stevens got past Western Connecticut, 67-56, in the consolation game.
The Scarlet Raider's women's team opens their conference play on Tuesday away at Ramapo. The women's game is scheduled to tip-off at 5:30 p.m., followed by the men at 7:30 p.m.
Sabrina Sanchez was sensational in the premiere game against WC. She netted a career -high 24 points to accompany a game-high six steals and five rebounds. The Raiders needed every basket; Western Connecticut rallied back but came up short, handing R-N a season-opening victory with a final score of 62-60.
Sophomore forward Toni Roselli finished with 11 points, draining all three free throws after being fouled while shooting from 3-point range, giving the Raiders a 55-38 lead with 8:12 remaining.
The Colonials answered by cutting the lead to just three at 59-56 on a pair of free throws by Mallory Stevens with 1:16 left.
Senior center Christyal Anderson grabbed a game-high 15 boards to give the Raiders a 33-29 edge in rebounding.
Anderson is the only senior, and her leadership and presence was felt. She iced the game with 22 seconds left by making her only two free throws of the evening for a 61-56 lead.
"Christyal Anderson is playing as well as she has ever played," Said Coach Morris. "She's been dominant on the boards for us. This was a sign that she'll play a full year this way for us, and I think she will. It's nice to have a big strong presence in the middle."
The Raiders were pleased to make it to the final, setting them up for a possible tournament victory to commence the season.
On Saturday afternoon, the team had trouble executing down the stretch. The Raiders had a chance to win the championship, but too many blundered passes, rebounds, and scoring opportunities proved to be costly.
Needing one basket to tie it up, the Raiders had the last shot of the game but could not pull it off. Vassar snagged the win, 53-51.
The pressure that comes with college level play seemed to be an awakening for some of the younger players. To the freshmen and sophomores on the team: chalk this one up as experience, learn from it, and move on to the next game.
"Obviously things get blown up a little bit when you lose, but we need scoring and consistent team rebounding," added Morris. "We're going to have to execute on offense to get scoring."
Finding reliable scoring is going to be the issue this season for the Raiders. They can run with any team and play a solid team defense. The key to doing damage in conference play will be to keep their opponents' scoring below 60 and to find a way themselves to shoot the lights out.
Christyal Anderson and sophomore forward Eni Fageyinbo were named to the all-tournament team. Host Stevens got past Western Connecticut, 67-56, in the consolation game.
The Scarlet Raider's women's team opens their conference play on Tuesday away at Ramapo. The women's game is scheduled to tip-off at 5:30 p.m., followed by the men at 7:30 p.m.