Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
0-1,0-0Patriot
NJIT
1-0,0-0America East
Women's Basketball Drops Season Opener Despite Strong Second Half
November 06, 2023 | Women's Basketball
West Point, NY – The Army Women's Basketball team fell in their season opener despite a strong second half.
How it Happened
The Highlanders opened the scoring with a couple of free throws to take an early lead. In her collegiate debut, freshman Fiona Hastick dropped the Black Knight's first points of the game hitting a short jumper to make it 4-2. Freshman forward Kya Smith drew a foul on her three-point attempt at the six-minute mark where she drained all three shots. The Highlanders would go on a 15-point run that was stopped by a Trinity Hardy jumper with just over a minute left.
Two newcomers would start the scoring in the second quarter for Army as Soleil Montrose and Kya Smith would find their first points of the day to make it a 25-11 game. Three different Highlander players found scoring opportunities and extended the NJIT lead. Senior leader Lauren Lithgow would hit the first Army three of the game and Hardy would sink a free throw to close out the scoring for the Black Knights as they headed into the locker room down 15-38. Army forced 11 NJIT turnovers and out-rebounded the Highlanders on the offensive boards 8-3 in the first half.
Army came out strong in the second half getting 10 points off turnovers in the third quarter. Junior Trinity Hardy and freshman Kya Smith put in work both offensively and defensively. The pair shot 8 for 9 from the field combining for 18 total third-quarter points. Hardy also put the pressure on defensively creating turnovers and pulling down two defensive boards as they headed into the final ten minutes down by 15.
There was no quit in the Black Knights as they competed hard in the last quarter, scoring nine unanswered points to cut the Highlander lead down to six with seven minutes left to play. NJIT would put together a string of plays and pull away again and time ran out before Army could put together another run and the Black Knights would fall 57-73 at the final buzzer. Army never gave up scoring 42 second-half points.
Up next for the Black Knights is a matchup in Poughkeepsie to take on Marist at 7:00 PM on Thursday night.
Follow Along
For complete coverage of Army West Point Women's Basketball, follow the Black Knights on:
Twitter: @ArmyWP_WBB
Instagram: @armywp_wbb, and online at www.goarmywestpoint.com.
