Stony Brook women's basketball team having lots of success
Stony Brook women's basketball coach Ashley Langford admits she can be "hard to impress." But her current team has caught her attention after 15 games.
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Stony Brook women's basketball coach Ashley Langford admits she can be "hard to impress." But her current team has caught her attention after 15 games.
"They are a joy to coach. They are easy to coach. They want to be coached and they want to be good," said Langford, who is now in her third season coaching the Seawolves.
These Seawolves are proving they are better than good. Their 14-1 record is the second best start in team history and their 4-0 record in conference games makes them the Colonial Athletic Association's only remaining undefeated team.
"I think they know how good we can be, " said Langford, who posted a 41-19 record in her first two seasons with the Seawolves. "We continue to talk about how special we can be, but you need to be confident in order to win games."
Going into this season Stony Brook also needed more scoring closer to the basket.
The team looked into the NCAA's transfer portal and found Khari Clark. The 6'2" forward transferred to Stony Brook after four seasons at Loyola Marymount University in California. While the Denver, Colorado native said she's still adjusting to the east coast, she is fitting in well with the Seawolves. (P.S. She won't admit that New York pizza is the best.) She is scoring 15 points per game and leads the team with 7.5 rebounds a game.
"For this season I just wanted to be consistent," Clark says. "That's all I could ever ask for myself. So it's a plus that I'm actually doing well."
In fact, she's doing so well Clark was recently named a nominee for the Mid-Major Player of the Year award. She has her teammates' vote!
"Khari brings everything. Scoring, rebounding, defense and energy. She's fun to play with," said junior forward Sherese Pittman.
"It's been nice to throw the ball inside and have someone who can shoot 60% every game," said Langford.
Clark recently scored her 1,000th career point. In fact, she did it in the same game as guard Gigi Gonzalez. Langford said she's never heard of two players reaching that milestone in the same game. Gonzalez told News 12 it meant a lot to reach that mark at Stony Brook after sticking it out for five years despite the COVID-19 season and a coaching change.
"I think it's really cool. It's growth. It's seeing how you went from this one person to a completely different person in the same place," said Gonzalez.
If they keep winning the Seawolves could be going to the NCAA Tournament come March.
"If we keep working hard hopefully that will happen for us," said Clark.
