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WILLIAMSTOWN,
MA.- Sixth-seeded Bates (14-11) powered past
third-seeded Williams (18-7) in a NESCAC quarterfinal game this
afternoon in Chandler Gymnasium on the Williams College campus,
70-63. The Bobcats
used a 20-1 run in a 5:54 stretch in the beginning of the second
half to bury the Ephs, and avenged their regular season loss on
January 16 in which Williams defeated Bates by a 67-59 margin.
The Ephs came out cold to open the first
half. Nearly three
minutes ticked off the clock before Lisa Jaris scored the first two
points for Williams in the paint. Bates looked
stronger in the opening minutes of play, but the Ephs crawled back
to tie the game at ten points apiece with 12:18 left in the
half. Claire Baecher grabbed the Ephs'
first lead off a three-point shot from the top of the key to put
the home team ahead, 13-12.
Williams began to build an
advantage. Jill Greenberg scored five unanswered
points with a shot from behind the arc and a two points from the
line. Grace
Rehnquist followed Greenberg's lead, scoring a trey and a
bucket inside to expand the Williams lead to 26-21 just under the
five-minute mark of the half.
Bates quickly erased that
lead. Annie Burns nailed a jumper from the left
elbow, and teammate Allie Beaulieu hit a three-pointer to tie the
game at 26-26. The Ephs surged again quickly to
build a six-point lead this time around, but it was short lived, as
Bates would not stay quiet.
Burns
hit a long ball to cut the lead to three, while Beaulieu would do
the same on the following possession to come within two of the
Ephs. Burns would finish the game with 12 points and 7
boards. Beaulieu
finished with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting, and 4-of-7 from
three-point range. Williams headed into
the locker room ahead 36-32.
“I thought in the first half we were
coming out on their shooters with our hands down,” said
Bates' head coach Jim Murphy. “So we
concentrated on getting closer to them and with a hand
up. We wanted to make their shooter put it on
the floor.”
Williams opened the second half in similar
fashion to the first, and could not muster any offensive
momentum. Bates, on
the other hand, found their stride and looked to be running on
autopilot during a six-minute stretch. The Ephs
held a 40-36 lead at the 17:36 mark, and Bates tied the game in
just forty-five seconds at 41-41. Bates' Lauren Yanofsky was
fouled on a successful lay up inside. Although she missed the free
throw, the basket marked Bates' first lead since mid-way
through the first-half. Yanofsky finished
the game with 18 points and 9 boards.
Beaulieu buried another of her four three
balls to up the lead.
Williams began to foul carelessly inside, and Bates took advantage
of slipshod turnovers on the Ephs' offensive
end. A basket by Jaris at the 11:42 finally
halted sixteen unanswered points by the Bobcats.
Bates led by as many as thirteen points during their run at 54-41.
“We limited them to one shot and most of
those were contested and we were able to get out and score off the
fast break,” continued Murphy.
Following a twenty-minute pause for a player
injury, Williams seemed more resilient out of the
break. Greenberg scored four unanswered points
to bring the score to 54-47 with just under ten minutes remaining
in regulation. Momentum appeared to be shifting,
as it took Bates over three minutes to connect on the offensive
end. The Ephs could
not find a shooting grove though, and never got closer than seven
points of the lead for the rest of the game.
Williams shot only 32.8% from the floor in both halves.
“We made bad choices and had poor shot
selection offensively,” said Williams' head coach Pat
Manning. “We
enabled them to get rebounds and run. They
[Bates] are a transition team. In January, we took them out of
their running game and that is why we were successful against them
before. They played how they wanted to play
today. With out poor
shot selection, we were just helping the other team.”
Taylor Shea came off the bench to lead the
Ephs in scoring with 16 points, and led all players in rebounds
with thirteen.
Greenberg finished the game with 13 points.
Jaris added 9 points and 7 boards.
“Bates played tremendously today,”
continued Manning.
“They put it all together, and simply outplayed
us. They were the better team today.”
With the 70-63 victory, Bates advances to the
NESCAC semifinals and will face off against top-seeded and
top-ranked Amherst College. No. 1 Amherst
defeated No. 8 Wesleyan this afternoon, 57-36. Williams
finishes the 2009-2010 season with an overall record of 18-7, and
7-2 conference record.
“This team was a work in
progress,” said Manning. “We
graduate Elizabeth Hansen who was such a dedicated player for four
years. She is the definition of what a team
member should be. She was always about the team,
and set the bar and was a great example for our young
players. We had a lot of growing pains for the
freshman and sophomores that will help us a lot next year.”
