By Colton Pankiewicz, Sports Editor
From Jan. 1 to Jan. 25, the women's basketball team grabbed wins in three of their six games, moving them neither up nor down the MAAC leaderboards. With a record of 5–3 in conference play, the Griffs are currently holding onto the third seed. Though there are still 12 games to play, a top three regular-season finish would mark the first top-three finish since the 2008-09 season.
On a .500 pace this month, the biggest question mark for Canisius has been surrounding their ability to string together consecutive wins. While they haven’t lost back-to-back games this month, they also have not been able to win in back-to-back scenarios either. Head coach Sahar Nusseibeh says she hasn’t seen her team put together a full 40 minutes yet this season. “Complete doesn’t mean perfect,” she said, adding that it takes both “consistency and trust” to put together a full game.
In each of the three wins this month in the span from Jan. 1 to Jan. 25, Canisius was able to dominate, with a margin of victory averaging 13 points. Also in those wins emerged a mature Griffs defense holding opponents to 50 points on average and the continuation of a superstar in Sisi Eleko who averaged 21 points.
Outside the Xs and Os of the games, Nusseibeh highlighted the graduate student as the “glue” to the team. “Whether she’s knocking down shots or not,” coach Nusseibeh said, “she has a lot of important roles to play.”
Canisius has three games remaining on the schedule this month, with two of them either against their biggest rival in Niagara or Fairfield, who currently holds the best record in the conference.