NYU aims to beat Hunter College

The NYU women's basketball team will have the chance to avenge an early season loss when they face Hunter College tonight in the first round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III Metropolitan Tournament.

The Violets come into the tournament as the sixth seed and will face the third-seeded Hawks in a 6 p.m. game at the Hunter Sportsplex, located at 68th Street and Lexington Avenue.
Head coach Stefano Trompeo said he was excited for the tournament.

"We have a great opportunity to play for a championship," Trompeo said.

In December, Hunter defeated the Violets 70-64 in double overtime behind a 19-point, 12-rebound performance from Hunter forward Andrea Buckham.

In their first game against the Hawks, the Violets were led by seniors Grace Carmen and Hailey Kimball, who scored 12 points each and were also the Violets' leading scorers for the season.
Despite their efforts, NYU fell to Hunter because of a few key lapses down the stretch, including missed free throws and an attempt to call a time out when they had none left, resulting in a technical foul.

Knowing the Hunter loss could easily have been a win, the Violets are confident going into tonight's game.

"We were a completely different team then, and we've grown up a lot," junior guard Chelsea Blake said. "Hunter is going to come into the game saying, 'We already beat them,' but they haven't seen our progress."

Buckham leads Hunter in scoring, but the Hawks also have four players averaging double-digit points per game. This includes three-point threat Shamar Stewartson, who has connected on 31 percent of her attempts from beyond the arc this season.

NYU comes into the tournament looking to snap a five-game losing streak that eliminated any hopes for an NCAA Tournament berth.

When NYU won at Case Western on Feb. 7, it had won five of six games and seemed to have reversed its early season struggles. But from that point, the Violets suffered two home losses, dropped their last three road contests, and stumbled into the ECAC Tournament with a 13-12 overall record.

If NYU can successfully reverse its luck, it will face the winner of the quarterfinal match-up between No. 2 seed College of Mount St. Vincent and No. 7 seed Drew University in the tournament's semifinals. Both the semifinal and final rounds will be played on the home court of the highest remaining seed.