ALBANY - Whitney Edwards lost her head-coaching debut by 16 points on Tuesday and had scarcely a negative word to say about the experience.
Like so many during the coronavirus pandemic, Edwards was grateful to finally have the chance to play in the College of Saint Rose women’s basketball team’s 70-54 loss to Mercyhurst in the season opener at Nolan Gymnasium.
“It was awesome,” said Edwards, a Northeastern assistant the past three years. “I wanted everybody to have fun. I think of the texts that I got today were definitely a reminder and would just like to shout out everyone who was just very supportive coming into the game. Like I said to the team, it was just about having fun and making sure that we put our best foot forward. I had a great time.”
The Golden Knights didn’t get the go-ahead from their administration to start scheduling games until last week because of COVID-19 precautions. The Northeast-10 Conference decided in December to cancel all conference competition, but gave its members the freedom to play an independent schedule, if they chose.
“It was just great to be on the sideline, honestly,” Edwards said. “It has been such a long year, and just to have an opportunity to have a shot, it felt really good.”
Saint Rose women’s basketball head coach Whitney Edwards watches her players during a game against Mercyhurst in her first season with the Golden Knights on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021 in Albany, N.Y. Former women’s basketball head coach Karen Haag watches the game at left. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)
Lori Van Buren/Times UnionSaint Rose jumped out to an 11-5 lead against Mercyhurst (8-4), playing its 12th game of the season. The Lakers took control with a 13-0 run to go ahead 29-19 with 3:38 remaining in the first half.
The Golden Knights trailed 32-24 at halftime and got no closer than six points in the second half.
Junior guard Becca Townes led Saint Rose with 12 points and sophomore forward Naeva Rene added 11 points. Senior forward Nina Fedullo of Amsterdam had four points and five rebounds in her first game in 357 days, since a home loss to American International last season.
“It was great,” Fedullo said. “We’ve been practicing since September. It was kind of like Groundhog Day, when are we going to play, when are we going to play? Just being back, it was great. It felt normal, which was something we haven’t felt like in months.”
Edwards is trying to turn around a program that went 7-19 last season in its final year under Karen Haag, who is now Saint Rose’s associate athletic director and senior woman administrator. Haag spent much of Tuesday’s game watching from close to the Golden Knights’ socially distanced bench.
Townes is one of several returning Saint Rose players getting accustomed to Edwards’ coaching style.
“I definitely learned that Coach is very focused on detail and execution,” Townes said. “She definitely knows how to push people and get the best out of them and letting them get to their best expectation. Me being one of the returners, she has higher expectations for me, especially setting an example for the younger guards.”
Edwards coached right to the final minute. With Saint Rose down by 18, she called a timeout with 59.9 seconds left that led to a Jenissa Encarnacion 3-pointer.
“We have to learn to execute,” Edwards said. “There’s no better time than to try a late-game (situation) than when you’re in a late game. We were going to definitely use that to work on some things and see what we could get. I was happy to see we executed it in the right way.”
After not playing for almost year, the Golden Knights now must get ready for another game in less than 24 hours. They’ll face Mercyhurst again on Wednesday at 1 in Nolan Gym.
“In general, they’re not accustomed to the quick turnaround,” Edwards said. “We’re going to do as best as they can in terms of getting them ready. They definitely have very good meals to get in tonight and we will have some stretching and rolling out going on in the morning.”
Julia Buchman led Mercyhurst with 14 points.
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