West Point – Nobody associated with the Army women’s basketball team, players and coaches alike, wanted Sunday’s WNIT game against NJIT to be Reese Ericson’s last one in a Black Knight uniform.
Not even when Army trailed by as many 15 points in the first half or early in the fourth quarter while the senior sat the bench with four fouls and her team down by a half dozen points with time starting to run down. Ericson, a senior co-captain and four-year starter, will play at least one more game.
Playing some stingy defense in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter, the Black Knights rallied for a 59-52 victory over NJIT in the second round of the postseason WNIT tournament.
Army, now 25-7, will play the winner of Monday’s contest between Binghamton and LaSalle in the Round of 16 Wednesday at a site and time to be determined by Tuesday morning. Army officials say the game is likely to play at Christl Arena.
“I really respect Reese and appreciate everything she has done for this team,” said junior forward Kya Smith, who scored 21 points and had 17 rebounds. “She is out there two hours before every single game launching up threes. She wants to win and she loves basketball and I am not going to let someone who loves basketball lose their last game.
Added Army coach Katie Kuester about Ericson, who finished with just five points: “You can just tell, she wanted that game so badly, even if her shots were not dropping, she was going to give it all defensively. She had a huge steal for us and she is just someone I rely on so much. I told her I am not done coaching her yet. So, we live to see another day and another opportunity for us to be together.”
To be frank, it seemed that Army could not successfully throw a basketball into the Hudson River in the first half of its game. The Black Knights made just nine of 37 shots from the floor before halftime and were a miserable 2-for-11 from three-point land. The Highlanders, out of the America East Conference and now 19-13, were patient and steady in the first half, hitting 13 of 22 field goals and going 4-for-6 from beyond the arc to take a 35-24 lead into the half.
“Having 10 days off from a game kind of showed, we were a little rusty,” said Kuester. “But what I am so proud of is that we never got down on ourselves. We continued to stay true to who we are and we got big stops when we needed to. As I told them at halftime we can rewrite this however we want and we needed to make a decision collectively and I think we did. We just scratched and clawed right out of that hole. I am just so proud of them.”
It was the Army defense that took charge in the second half, even as the offense still struggled for some of the third quarter. Not only did the Highlanders not get good shots, but Army outrebounded them by nine in the second half. It also helped that Smith and junior Camryn Tade, who scored 11 of her 15 points in the second half, started to take control of the offense. Army grabbed the lead for the first time since midway through the first quarter, 47-45, on a Reganne Readon basket with 6:20 left in the fourth quarter.
“Kya Smith is a point forward for us,” said Kuester. “I trust her with the ball in her hand. Camryn Tade is borderline impossible to stop when she is at her best. Those two are gym rats, they love to be in the gym and it is a product of hard work.”
Some history was made in the game. First, the 25 victories for Kuester are the most by any first-year Army coach in the history of the men’s or women’s basketball programs at West Point. Second, the trip to the Sweet 16 of the WNIT is the farthest an Army team has gone in a Division I postseason national tournament since two Bobby Knight-coached men’s teams reached the Final Four of the NIT in the late 1960s. The Army women’s team reached the semifinals of the Division II tournament in the 1980s.
With another game in just 72 hours, Ericson is happy to continue her career at West Point.
“I want to keep going as long as I can,” said Ericson. “I am just loving every moment. I am just blessed with the teammates and coaches I have had. I am truly enjoying it, feeling no stress or pressure. Sure, there is pressure to win but it is just the love of the game I really enjoy.”
