Photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics
For the first time since Feb. 20, the Bradley Center played host to a sport other than volleyball, as the women’s basketball team opened up the 2016-17 season with a dominant victory over Yeshiva University on Tuesday night.
Three Roadrunners put up double-digit points for Ramapo in their 80-37 victory against the Maccabees.
Head coach Mike Eineker said it was very exciting to be back on the floor for the first time of the year.
“It’s been a while — it was good,” said Eineker. “It was good to get us on the court and that we were able to get a lot of kids on the court. I think it was a good day and a good opponent.”
Eineker gave credit to the Maccabees for battling tough.
“The Yeshiva kids play hard, and they compete. So it was good in that respect,” said Eineker.
Senior captain Kellie Lane and senior guard Shelby Ringer each had 16 points for the Roadrunners, while junior guard Jina Crawford dropped 13 of her own.
“We were so limited last year with our ability to score that it got really hard for us to manage games,” said the ninth-year head coach. “That was one thing that was good to see.”
12 of Ringer’s 16 points came in under two minutes when she hit four consecutive three-pointers.
“It was good to see Shelby shooting the ball well,” said Eineker. “I was happy. We were very much in control of the game, but during that stretch, right before that, we weren’t playing particularly well; we were a little sloppy. Good shooting will cover a lot of things. Hopefully it’ll continue and give her some confidence.”
Eineker was able to play 13 players throughout the 40 minutes, all of them playing over 11 minutes in the game.
“That was a good time for them to get out, because it’s different. No matter how much you try to make your practices game-like, it’s just different,” said the head coach. “It’s different when people are in there watching; it’s different when there are referees there calling plays. That’s something that was a good thing — to get all of our kids some time. I don’t think that’ll happen a lot.”
Freshman guard Samantha Rinaldi led the Roadrunners with the most minutes played; she had 21.
Fellow freshman, forward Jenna Harsh, played in 18 minutes of her own in her Roadrunner debut.
The senior captain Lane and sophomore forward Tia Solomon each recorded a team-high six rebounds. Junior forward Kelly McNulty and freshman guard Samantha Rinaldi both grabbed five boards.
The Roadrunners will face John Jay College on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in their first game of the annual Roadrunner Tip Off Tournament, a tournament that Eineker wants to wind up victorious in.
“The tournament teams are gonna be a step up in competition. It’ll be interesting to see how we handle these two teams,” said Eineker. “We haven’t won this tournament in a couple of years, so it’s something that we’re very much hoping for — to keep that hardware at home.”
rmorik@ramapo.edu
