The Rowan Women’s Basketball team suffered their biggest loss of the season so far, losing 70-59 against The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) at home last week. The loss to TCNJ momentarily put them in third in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC), however Montclair’s win over TCNJ on Feb. 1 brought Rowan back to the top of the NJAC.

The Prof’s rebounded with a big win over Ramapo, 84-53 last Saturday.

Coach Demetrius Poles was influential in the team’s bounceback, according to sophomore guard Grace Marshall.

“Coach [Poles] talked to us in practice and he tells us after every loss that we just have to stay focused and get back to playing the way we do,” Marshall said. “We just came into practice with a new focus of working hard and getting back on track.”

Poles believes that the loss was due to injury, between a stomach bug that’s been going around lately and others. 

Losing Kennedy Brown was one of the biggest factors in the loss, according to Coach Poles.

“We had lost our point guard that was kind of the engine of the team,” Poles said. “And she’s the antithesis of what TCNJ likes, they don’t like playing against Kennedy [Brown]. So once everyone got healthy, we just fit right back in. Couple practices and everyone did their job.”

The loss against TCNJ was the Prof’s second NJAC loss, with other coming against Montclair earlier in the season. The Prof’s have a chance to get revenge with their matchup against Montclair on Saturday, Feb. 8, and their loss against TCNJ will help them.

“TCNJ is a really good team and so is Montclair so I think that our competition, losing and learning [from TCNJ], will help us play against Montclair,” Marshall said. “I think that Montclair is a faster paced team, so we’ll have to adjust how we played against TCNJ, learning from our mistakes and knowing how we play.”

Poles agreed with Marshall, however, he also said he wasn’t looking that far forward and was still focusing on their matchup against Stockton.

“The loss against TCNJ kinda cleared everything up and showed us exactly what we need to fix, but first is Stockton,” Poles said. “I don’t want to jump over them and suffer a loss and then everything kinda falls apart. So we just take it one day at a time and keep working and doing what we have been, and we’ll be ready.”

The Profs travel to Stockton on Wednesday before coming back home and facing Montclair on Saturday, Feb. 8, arguably their biggest game of the season. A loss would almost ensure that Rowan would be unable to win the conference.

With injuries subsiding, the Profs have what it takes to win with a new sense of focus and determination stemming from their loss against TCNJ.

For comments/questions about this story, email sports@thewhitonline.com or tweet @TheWhitOnline.