WILLAMSTOWN, MA -- WILLIAMSTOWN, MA -- Taylor Shea scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds Saturday to lead the Williams College women's basketball team past Middlebury, 72-55.
Junior Jill Greenberg added 11 points and six assists in the win, while sophomores Claire Baecher and Grace Rehnquist netted 12 points each. Williams improved to 19-1 on the season and 5-0 in the NESCAC. The Ephs play at Bowdoin Friday at 8 p.m.
"We're happy with the way we're progressing," Ephs' head coach Pat Manning said. "But we still have a lot of hard work ahead of us. I thought our first half defense was tremendous today and we came out and controlled the boards. Our offense really feeds off our defensive effort and I think that showed -- in both halves -- today."
Middlebury, which was led by a game-high 19 points from Stephany Surrette, fell to 12-5, 2-3 in conference play. The Panthers host Albany Pharmacy Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
An early 15-0 run the Ephs in the first half turned a tie game into a 17-2 Eph advantage. Cold-shooting by Middlebury coupled with good work on the glass for Williams and the Ephs ability to score in transition turned the game in the home team's favor.
Greenberg got the run started with a pull-up jumper from the foul line. Following a Shea putback, Greenberg came up with a steal of the in-bounds and fed Jennie Harding for a lay-up. Another pull-up jumper by Greenberg made it 10-2 and forced Middlebury into a timeout.
Baecher got the run re-started with her own foul-line jumper created off the dribble. Danny Rainer followed with an easy lay-up created by a Baecher assist, and Baecher then made it 17-2 when she drained a three-pointer off the right wing after Rehnquist kicked a pass back out.
The Panthers were 1 for 18 from the floor when Laura Lowry drove to the basket and scored with 9:40 remaining to make it 17-4, but Rehnquist followed with another three-pointer to make it 20-4 Williams only 18 seconds later.
Williams shot 53.1 percent from the floor (17 of 32) in the opening stanza and outrebounded the Panthers 25-18 in that time. The Ephs recorded 11 assists on their 17 field goals, evidence of their strong ball movement and ability to score in transition.
Rehnquist had nine points in the first half, while Shea and Greenberg each netted eight. Shea has eight rebounds to go with her eight points. Surrette scored 11 points for the Panthers.
The Ephs led by 21 at the half, and despite some great work on the boards in the second half by Middlebury, never saw their lead dip below 15 over the final 20 minutes. The Panthers outrebounded Williams 30-17 in the second half.
