By Alexander Abramovich

The Oswego State Women’s basketball team has been on a cold streak of late, losing their past four games after a big 49-46 win over SUNY Oneonta back on Jan. 28 at Max Ziel Gymnasium.

The Laker’s most recent matchup was on the road on Feb 8th against Buffalo State, where they lost by a score of 73-59. The other three losses during the losing streak included a tough five-point loss against SUNY New Paltz, a 14-point loss against SUNY Potsdam and a seven-point loss against Plattsburgh State. A real tough stretch of games all against SUNYAC opponents, especially with three of the four games being at Max Ziel Gymnasium.

This Oswego team is on the younger side when it comes to experience playing at the collegiate level. Many players on this team have not played a game of college basketball before and learning the game is key when it comes to success. Head coach Sean Pinkerton believes that his team has been a tough team to play, they just need to make a few adjustments to their game.

“This semester we have given our opponents good looks and have just been unfortunate in our close games,” Pinkerton said. “We have to get better at contesting three-point shots and limiting turnovers in crunchtime.”

Improving on one’s craft comes with experience, and that is simply what the Lakers need. They have had some bad luck in close games this year with seven of their 16 losses coming by single digits. The two losses that stand out were the one-point loss on Jan. 13 at SUNY Potsdam and the two-point loss on Jan. 25 at SUNY Geneseo. Pinkerton spoke about the team’s youth and how they did not exactly have a normal start to their season. 

“Most of our players before this season have never played a game of college basketball before they came to Oswego,” Pinkerton said. “Many of our sophomore players are basically freshmen because all they could do was live in the dorms as we didn’t have any practices.”

Having a young team comes with obstacles, but it also means that over the years they will be able to mesh together and become more of a family than a team. Pinkerton spoke about how the experience his players get from this year will certainly help them improve next season. 

“We have a young team and we knew this season was going to be a learning process, as far as our progress we have made leaps in terms of where we were in the fall compared to the spring,” Pinkerton said. “Now with some experience from this year, we can aim to carry it over into next season.”

Being lucky is something that many people believe in, and luck can certainly have a factor in the world of sports. This season has been a frustrating one for the Lakers, but Pinkerton does not believe that luck has been a factor to this point. 

“I wouldn’t call it bad luck, it has just been a learning process. We have come out of games against SUNY Oneonta and SUNY Geneseo where we won close games,” Pinkerton said. “And other games where we had been leading against a higher-ranked team in the conference and just couldn’t finish. So I think the experience we gained from tight match-ups gave us some confidence.”

While this season has not been what the Lakers hoped, they have shown potential at points throughout the season. Gaining experience on the court will most definitely help them out in the future. Growing off the court is also important, and Pinkerton praises his team for that. The team has been hanging out with the Lakers men’s basketball team and the amount of success that they have had will hopefully spread on to the women’s team going forward. Pinkerton spoke on how fantastic the men’s team has played this season.

 “I’ve been busy with this season so I haven’t spoken with [Jason Leone] a lot but they are having one of the best seasons in program history,” Pinkerton said. “I know the two teams hang out a lot which is great. I’ve seen the guys give us support at our games right before theirs every weekend.”

The men’s team is on a tear winning their last 17 straight games and becoming the No. 14 ranked team in the country. Pinkerton was glad that they showed support this season and hopes his squad can amount to that level of success.  

The Oswego State Women’s basketball team heads on the road Feb. 11 to take on SUNY New Paltz.

Diana Vitale | The Oswegonian