With a comeback victory over the University of New England Jan. 28, Suffolk University women’s basketball head coach Ed Leyden secured his 500th career win as a head coach and 489th at Suffolk.
“When I came here I didn’t know much about Suffolk University. It’s really a place that I’ve grown to love. It’s a place that our teams have tried to represent by giving people a chance, fighting and sticking together. Suffolk has really been a wonderful place for me,” said Leyden.
Suffolk defeated UNE by a score of 59-52, bringing coach Leyden’s career record to 500-322 (.608) over 32 seasons as head coach. At Suffolk, Leyden has a 489-310 (.612) record.
“It was really a terrific team win against a very good team. UNE was really, really tough and I was proud of the kids for playing defense, rebounding and sticking together. I was happy to win the game,” said Leyden.
Down eight points by halftime, the Rams rallied back in the second half with a 21-6 third quarter run, taking the lead as they headed into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter was a back and forth battle between the two teams, but Suffolk came out on top with the seven point win.
“The kids fought like heck. We played the best team defense of the year. We set a goal of 60 points, or 15 a quarter, and we were able to do that in three out of four quarters. We’re really trying to stress our team defense and stick together,” said Leyden.
Junior guard and forward Colby Guinta led the Rams in scoring with 15 points. Graduate forward Amanda DeAngelis tacked on another 12 points with 9 rebounds on the night.
This was Suffolk’s second win ever against UNE, improving to 2-7 against them.
This win comes at an important time, as Suffolk has struggled during their midseason stretch of games. This desperately needed win over UNE brought them to 5-5 over their last 10 games as they look towards a playoff push.
“We’ve been giving up too many points, it puts too much pressure on us to score. There’s also the obvious, you’re taking the player of the year from last year out of our lineup. That has to have an effect. It’s not easy, the league is very, very tough. There’s been a lot of teams knocking each other off. We just have to keep banging away at it,” said Leyden.
As the team moves towards the final month of the regular season, Leyden hopes that Suffolk will show up and support the team as they attempt to make it into the playoffs.
“I think we represent the ideals of Suffolk. I’d love for people to come and appreciate it. I think the games are exciting, I think if people give women’s basketball a chance they would like it. I think if they gave this team a chance they would like it. This is a really good group of people and they really try their best,” said Leyden.
The 10-9 Rams will play at Gordon College Feb. 5 as they enter the final stretch of the regular season.
