by Rachel Rosten
Box Score
HARTFORD, CT. - Hungry to
taste their first conference victory of the season, Trinity College
(8-6, 0-3) came out ready to play on their home
court. The Bantams dictated play in the first
frame and went ahead by as many as fifteen points, but the Williams
women's basketball team (13-5, 2-1) proved their ability to
come from behind and remain composed down the stretch once
more.
Narrowing the lead to five at the half, the
Ephs continued to play a more complete game in
the second half to stave off their opponents and notch their third
conference victory of the season by a score of 62-61.
Williams' poor shooting in the first
half hurt their offensive effort, but the hot hand of
Trinity's Claire Ernstein proved to be even more
detrimental. While the Ephs shot 33.3-percent
from the floor in the opening twenty minutes, the Bantams only
narrowly edged the Ephs in shooting percentage with
thirty-seven. Where the hurt really took place
was from behind the arc. Trinity shot 62.5
percent from three-point range with Ernstein nailing four in the
first half. Ernstein finished the first half
with fourteen points.
While the inside game flagged in the early
going for Williams, Mika Peterman, who's as reliable from
three-point range as any shooter out there,
nailed only one of her first four attempts.
Trinity took advantage of the Ephs' offensive woes to build a
sizeable lead. Down by just five at the 11:49
mark, Williams could not seem to hold on to the
ball. Despite both squads turning the ball over,
Trinity capitalized by scoring ten points off turnovers while the
Ephs managed only three points
off turnovers.
Trinity expanded their lead off an Ernstein
three to go ahead 22-10. Williams called a
timeout in an attempt to regroup, but Ernstein struck again on the
next possession on court. Nailing her fourth
three-pointer of the half, Ernstein and her team went up 25-10 with
8:18 to play.
“I knew we [Williams] just weren't
playing well at all,” said Williams head coach Pat
Manning. “It was definitely more us and we
weren't executing well. We had to calm
down and play better together. We had been
playing a one-pass offense and we need three or four passes to get
good looks. Trinity was making us work for
it.”
On some teams, panic can settle in, but not on
this Williams squad. Having won five games this
season by five points or less, the Ephs know how to come from
behind and stay calm under pressure situations.
Williams slowly chipped away at the
lead. Peterman began to find her shooting touch,
and Niki Savageau took control as floor general to make things
happen on the offensive end. Chessie Jackson,
scoreless up to this point, nailed a three from the top of the key
with seconds on the clock to bring her Ephs within five at the
break.
“At halftime when we were down by five,
everybody felt as though we were going to win,” commented
Manning in regards to her squad's grace under
fire. “We knew that all
we had to do was put together a solid second half and we would be
okay. With better second half defense, and
distributing the ball better, we would be fine.
No one panics on this team, and it's fun. They all stay cool
under pressure and that's a key thing.”
The Ephs opened the second half ready to
attack and sixty-percent shooting from the floor in the second half
proved to be the remedy for Williams' first half
ills. Jackson drained her second three of the
night to tie the game at thirty-seven points apiece with 16:39 to
play in regulation. Williams eventually grabbed
their first lead of the game off a Peterman three-pointer to go
ahead 40-38. The game remained extremely close
to the finish, as the teams continued to trade baskets.
Finally with two minutes on the clock, the
Ephs built their largest lead of
night. A Jackson jumper, followed by a Dominique
de la Torre bank shot in the paint off an inbounds play, saw
Williams take the largest lead of either team since the whistle to
start the half. Ahead 62-57 with forty eight
seconds ticking away, Trinity narrowed the lead to three after a
successful Rebecca Cohn pull up jumper.
At fourteen seconds to play, a Williams
turnover gave Trinity the opportunity to tie the game with a
three-pointer. Ernstein missed her attempt, but
the ball went out of bounds off an Eph with 3.4 seconds on the
clock. Ernstein received the inbounds pass, but
strangely drove into the lane for two instead of taking a
shot.
Peterman finished with a game-high 20 points
on 8-of-16 shooting. Savageau recorded 15
points, while Jackson and Taylor Shea chipped in 8 points
apiece. Ernstein led Trinity with 18
points. Christine Card grabbed 12 rebound to
tally a double-double with her 10 point effort for the
Bantams. Teammates Kristine Liska and Cohn
contributed 10 and 8 points respectively.
Williams will return home tomorrow to face off
against archrival Amherst at 2:00 p.m. The Ephs
fell to the Lord Jeffs earlier in the season on January 12 by a
score of 65-53.
