NORTH ADAMS, MA -- The Route 2 rivalry was
renewed Sunday afternoon, but it appeared, at least defensively,
the Williams College women's basketball team was still on holiday
for the first 25 minutes of the game.
A switch to a 2-3 zone defense parlayed with inspired play off
the bench from senior Lisa Jaris and
junior Grace
Rehnquist turned the game around as the Ephs pulled away for an
87-65 win over Massachusetts College at the Amsler Campus Center
Gymnasium.
Williams improved to 4-0 with the win. The Ephs are off until
Friday when they host Bridgewater State in the first game of the
Williams Holiday Classic at 6 p.m. MCLA dropped to 2-1 on the
season.
"We emphasized better transition defense and rebouning at
halftime," Ephs head coach Pat Manning said. "I thought we did a
better job with both after we switched to a zone. MCLA is an
explosive team off the dribble and we had trouble with that in the
first half."
Jill
Greenberg led Williams with 23 points and threw in six assists.
Rehnquist finished with 21 points, 15 coming in only 12 minutes of
the second half. Greenberg and Rehnquist combined to score 28 of
the Ephs' 45 points in the second half.
Emily Tremblay scored a career-high 30 points to pace the
Trailblazers.
Williams held a slight 42-41 lead at the halftime break, but
Tremblay came out of the locker room to score eight straight points
for the hosts and a Jen Wehner bucket from the block made it a
51-51 game with 16:31 remaining.
A lay-up from Eph junior Claire
Baecher regained the lead for Williams at 53-51 and ignited a
14-2 run that changed the game. MCLA would score only two points in
a 5:02 span and after a Wehner basket stopped the dry spell,
Rehnquist answered with a three-pointer in transition that gave the
visitors a 68-55 advantage with 11:03 to go.
The switch to zone seemed to fluster the Trailblazers as they
shot just 35.7 percent (10 of 28) from the floor over the final 20
minutes after hitting a sizzling 47.1 percent (16 of 34) in the
opening stanza. Williams also dominated the glass in the second
half by a 29-12 margin after being tied up in that category, 18-18,
in the first half.
A large part of the Ephs' dominance was Jaris, who had 10
rebounds in 11 minutes played off the bench for Williams, seven
boards in the second half.
"I just Lisa and Grace were monsters off the bench for us
today," Manning said. "Grace was explosive offensively, but really
played great on both ends of the floor. Lisa was a monster on the
boards for us. Those two made a big difference and then Jill
(Greenberg) was outstanding. She kept her poise and made some great
decisions out there."
Baecher finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and two blocks
for Williams, and junior Jennie
Harding contributed nine points and six rebounds in the
win.
