Luke Whitehouse
@Lwhitehouse12
SPRINGFIELD – Despite being without starting point guard Rachel Vinton, the Springfield women’s basketball team came out with a vengeance in their opening game of the NEWMAC conference tournament.
The Pride jumped out to an early 21-12 lead and never looked back, ultimately defeating Salve Regina 89-43.
With Vinton sidelined, the Pride turned to senior Riley Robinson. Although the insertion into the starring role was new for Robinson, she was ready – collecting four points, four assists and committing only two turnovers.
“I’m going to tell you my team is resilient,” Graves said. “I think Riley did an exceptional job of stepping in and figuring out a new situation and it went great.”
The Pride began the game hot, and first-year Claire Finney was a big reason why. She totaled nine of her 21 points in the first quarter.
Despite the lack of postseason experience, Finney seemed unfazed – shooting 8-12 from the field and 3-4 from downtown.
Finney was one of seven first-year players that took the floor, with her, Natalie Lucas (11) and Claire Hess (10) all reaching double-figures.
As the great Bobby Knight once said:
“The key is not the will to win, everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.”
And that’s exactly what has propelled Finney and the rest of the first-year class into integral parts of the game.
“The intensity of our practices are 100 percent harder than every game we play,” Finney said. “And so I think part of it is just that we show up every single day. The upperclassmen don’t give us any room to be freshmen. It’s [an absolute that] if you’re going to be on the floor, you better show up.”
But if there’s one player that epitomizes what Finney described, it’s herself.
“If you knew Claire, she’s never gonna be afraid,” Graves said. “I think Claire is a person who’s really evolved as a freshman impact player. She’s doing amazing things.”
In the second quarter Springfield’s defense decided to steal the show – forcing the Seahawks to shoot 1-12 from the field and holding them to just nine points. That intensity continued throughout the games entirety, forcing 16 turnovers, while holding Sale Regina to just 44 points on 24.1% shooting.
“I think we play one of the best defenses in the country,” Graves said “Our man-to-man [defense] has gotten us where we are today and we have trust in it and trust in our team.”
What’s even more impressive is that the Pride scored 50 points in the paint, six more than Salve Regina’s team total.
And it was by design.
Salve boast’s three women that are over six feet, presenting a strong front court presence, yet the Pride were ready to right at them from the beginning.
“We wanted to attack their bigs, we really wanted to go at them,” Graves said. “When we played at Salve [Regina] last time, we really shot the ball more from the outside. So we wanted to force them to play defense.”
Despite holding a 18-point halftime lead, the Pride upped their offensive production in the second half – finding their transition game and their shot. Springfield made five three’s and shot 63% from the field, scoring 50 points, while only committing three turnovers.
With the win, The Pride improved to 22-4 on the season and advanced to the second round of the conference tournament where they’ll host Babson on Friday. The Pride have beaten Babson twice this season, both by double-digits, yet none of it matters to Graves.
“It’s not the name on the Jersey, it’s our next opponent,” she said. “This is a special group of women. And I don’t care who we play in the next game. I really don’t. Because I feel like we’re ready.”
Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics