Box Score
Photo Gallery
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – Five players scored
in double figures to lead the Williams women's basketball
team (11-5, 1-1) past the visiting Colby Mules (3-10, 0-2) for
their first conference win of the season. Both
teams entered today's contest having suffered difficult
defeats the night before. Willliams was looking
to rebound from a 65-62 loss against Bowdoin, while Colby hoped to
bounce back from a 64-62 loss versus Middlebury.
Youth and inexperience certainly played a
factor as Colby's roster consists of all freshman and
sophomores with the exception of senior Katie
McCabe. Although Williams' starting lineup
boasts two first years, the maturity and leadership of the
squad's junior and seniors certainly contributes a great deal
to their success on the court. The more complete
Eph squad dominated on all fronts to defeat the Mules, 73-49.
Merely seven minutes into play, Williams had
already built a substantial eleven-point advantage following a pass
by Whitney Livermore to Chessie Jackson for three points to bring
the score to 17-6. The Ephs continued their
surge and put together a 13-2 run. Mika Peterman started the ball
rolling with a shot from behind the arc, while Dominique de la
Torre took the ball hard inside for back-to-back plays in the
paint. Taylor Shea took her turn to contribute,
and scored the next five points before Niki Savageau stole the ball
for a lay up to bring the Williams lead to an even
twenty.
Ahead 40-20 with 3:30 to play in the half, the
balanced scoring attack continued and Williams headed into the
locker room with a comfortable 44-24 advantage.
Peterman and Shea had already broke double digits with 10 and 13
points respectively. The Ephs had already
established the advantage on the glass with a 26-17
margin. A 2-for-10 effort from three-point range
did not aid the Mules' cause either.
“Mika's [Peterman] shooting is
always on and Niki [Savageau] did a great job of finding people the
ball,” said Manning. “Our shooting
percentage was better, we read the defense better, and attacked
well. Taylor has been off lately but was a big
factor today. Everything was just more balanced
and better.”
The second half rolled along in similar
fashion. Williams' intensity stayed high,
and the team expanded their lead to twenty-eight with 5:39 on the
clock. The large lead gave Williams head coach,
Pat Manning, the opportunity to empty her bench and give all her
players some minutes on the floor.
“It is always a challenge on a
NESCAC weekend, “ commented
Manning. “To play two days in a row is
always tough regardless of what happened the night before, but
bringing the same intensity is not easy to do and we were able to
set the tone early. It was solid team effort
with good ball movement.”
Peterman finished 14 points, while de la Torre
and Savageau chipped in 10 points each. Savageau
standing at 5'4” grabbed 7 boards as
well. Shea contributed 13 points and 7 rebounds,
while Harris added 10 points. Jackson finished
one point and one rebound shy of a double double with 9 points and
9 rebounds.
McCabe led all scorers with 15 points and 5
boards, while Alison Cappelloni tallied 8 points for the
Mules.
Williams will continue in NESCAC action on
Tuesday against Little Three foe Wesleyan. Game
time is set for 7:30 p.m. in Chandler Gymnasium.
