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WILLIAMSTOWN,
MA. – After defeating the 11th-ranked Tufts
Jumbos last night in a last-second thriller, Williams women's
basketball (13-4, 2-0 NESCAC) picked up another victory over Bates
College (8-8, 0-2), 67-59. The win gives the
Ephs a 2-0 start to conference play.
“We are a young team still,” said
Williams' head coach Pat Manning.
“It is always a challenge after an emotional game the night
before, but you have to put it aside and step up. It is an important lesson that
every day is a new day, and this team showed maturity. We were not thinking about Tufts
today, and we did a good job of focusing on the task at
hand.”
The game remained close throughout the first
half. Wil
liams built a small six-point advantage in the opening minutes at
10-4, but Bates quickly closed the gap. Tied at
19-19 with 6:40 left on the clock, the Ephs began to turn up the
offense. Taylor Shea came off the bench to get
things started, scoring on a reverse lay up fro go ahead by two
points.
Grace Rehnquist hit from behind the arc to
extend the lead to five. Chessie Jackson nailed
a turn around jumper to bring the score to 30-21 with 2:46 to play
in the first half, causing Bates to call a
timeout. Jennie Harding scored a three-pointer
out of the timeout to give the Ephs their first double-digit lead
of the game. Harding would score another bucket
to bring the lead to twelve points at 37-25 with 1:10 on the clock.
On the final offensive possession of the first
half, Bates' Annie Burns shot a quick three that
narrowed
the lead to seven at the break. Williams headed
into the locker room up 37-30.
“Bates is a good team with an running,
attacking transition style of play,” commented
Manning. “They can come back in a hurry,
so it was key in the second half for us to get defensive
stops. It was a
little like yesterday's game in that the momentum was
shifting at a point in the second half and we were able to stop
it. Overall, our
rebounding was solid and our post defense was
good. They were hurting us with some cuts in the
first half, but we adjusted and in the second half our defense was
much better.”
Bates came charging back quickly in the second
half, scoring the first four points out of the break to narrow the
lead to four points.
Jill Greenberg responded with a three-pointer to halt any more
damage, but the Bobcats brought the score to 44-43 just 3:50 into
the half. Williams
did not relinquish the lead, and countered with greater defensive
intensity. Williams
led by ten, 63-53, with 5:31 on the clock and Bates could not get
close to the lead in the final minutes of play as the Ephs took the
win, 67-59.
“This is an incredible start for us in
NESCAC play,” said Manning. “This
conference is so good, and taking care of business at home against
two top teams was important. We are working on making our game
complete, and we made a major step in that direction this weekend
with our balanced play.”
Four Ephs scored in double figures in this
afternoon's win. Greenberg led the way
with 11 points, while Lisa Jaris and Shea added 10 points
each. Jackson scored 12 points, while Jennie
Harding was strong on the glass with 10 boards.
Harding added 8 points as well.
Bates' Lauren Yanofsky led all scorers
with 19 points.
Teammate Taryn O'Connell added 11 points, while Allie
Beaulieu contributed 8 points and 6 rebounds.
Williams will hit the road to face off against
Wesleyan on January 22 at 6:00 p.m.
