One of the biggest reasons Jessica Mannetti believed her team was struggling offensively was the shooting woes of her guards. Sacred Heart’s usual go-to option and all-conference selection, Adrianne Hagood seemed to not look like the scorer that Pioneers fans were used to seeing.
On Thursday night, Hagood cracked double figures for the fourth straight game, leading Sacred Heart to a 68-42 victory over Central Connecticut. The win moved Sacred Heart (4-5, 4-3 NEC) over .500 in conference play.
Hagood scored 14 points in the victory, tied for the team lead in the game. The senior guard appears to have found herself offensively after beginning the season in a shooting slump.
In a season riddled with stoppages and inconsistent schedules, Hagood, who was deemed the “unluckiest person in the world” by her head coach when it came to COVID protocols, suffered the most, even without contracting the virus.
According to Hagood, she has been in multiple quarantines adding up to almost two months since she first came back to campus at the end of August.
Thus, the nickname “Quarantine Queen” was born.
“Mentally, it would be especially hard if I was in quarantine and my team could work out and lift, it was hard for me to see that and not be able to do it,” said Hagood. “So I would just tell myself to get through the days. It was really out of my hands with the contact tracing.”
Prior to Sacred Heart’s series against Wagner on Jan. 7 & 8, Hagood was in yet another quarantine as a result of contact tracing, and came out of the two-week pause just three days before their first matchup with the Seahawks.
“Usually we have scout two days before a game. So the days before the game when I was in quarantine, I had to be fast on my feet because I knew I was a little bit behind,” said Hagood. “Listening was the biggest thing. I just had to be attentive.”
Three days out of quarantine, Hagood dropped a season-high 23 points in the first game against Wagner. Hagood joked that even mid-game, she was asking her teammates for help on certain plays.
“What helped me the most was that when we huddled, my teammates would say ‘Ok Dri you have to do this, you have to do that.’, or we would huddle and I would be like ‘Guys what do I do here?’. My teammates would always have my back,” said Hagood.
Sacred Heart looks to win their third straight when the Pioneers and Blue Devils face off again, this time in New Britain. Tip off scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
