CSM women’s hoops cancels remainder of season

Shortage of players dooms Hawks

After struggling to a 2-8 start through the first 10 games of its 2016-17 schedule, the Col- lege of Southern Maryland women’s basketball team offi- cially canceled the remainder of its games as of Jan. 1 due to a shortage of players.

In a statement released to Southern Maryland Newspa- pers from the CSM athletics department on Tuesday, the Hawks women’s season was eventually nixed “due to injuries and a variety of other aca- demic and non-academic rea- sons, the team roster shrank to five players in December.”

CSM (2-8, 2-4 in the Mary- land Junior College Athletic Conference) lost its first two games before posting an 81-38 victory at Howard Community College on Nov. 16. The Hawks later recorded their second and final win of the season on Dec. 5 when they upended Allegheny Community College, 64-59. But a series of lopsided loss- es ensued and eventually the shortage of players curtailed the remaining contests for the CSM women.

CSM’s second and final win actually came one week after it was trounced by undefeated Harford Community College, 98-38, on a night when they scored only one point in the first quarter and trailed 57-10 at half- time. On that night, Haley Oli- ver, a North Point High School graduate from Waldorf, led the Hawks with 13 points. All five starters and two reserves got considerable playing time that night, while three other back- ups played briefly.

CSM would later drop its final two games, 79-56 against Cecil Community College on Dec. 9 and 95-40 to Louisburg College (N.C.) the next day. In their un- scheduled season finale against Louisburg, the Hawks fell behind 25-7 after one quarter, trailed 40-17 at the intermission and would later get outscored 35-9 in the fourth quarter.

CSM went 1-5 at home and 1-3 on the road. The Hawks were outscored 755-523 in those 10 contests. They were scheduled to face Baltimore City on Wednesday and had four games remaining in January and two more in February, but those outings have already been canceled.

“While the college could have continued playing with a five-player roster, the team would not have been able to substitute any players nor ac- commodate any illnesses or additional injuries,” the CSM athletic office statement contin- ued. “As of Jan. 1, the women’s basketball team is considered in the offseason and all further games are canceled.”

CSM second-year head women’s basketball coach Ardell Jackson said Wednesday afternoon, “It was not what we had anticipated, but by late last month we really only had five healthy girls that could have finished out the season. At that point we did not want to risk any more further injuries. We only had one sophomore, Akilah Stroman, and we’re working with her to find a school for her next year. She has been getting a lot of interest from four-year