WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – The Williams women's basketball team defeated the Bridgewater State Bears today 89-63 in the Williams Holiday Classic. The win moves the Ephs to 5-0 on the year, while the Bears find themselves at 3-2.
Bridgewater State took the lead early. Just under four minutes into the game, Megan Boutilette had a nice offensive rebound, took one dribble, and finished the layup to give the Bears the four-point lead. A nice shot from the right elbow from Jenna Williamson pushed the lead to six.
Grace Rehnquist, however, took the game over as she scored 11 straight points for the Ephs. She hit a big three from the right side and finished a nice pass inside on the following possession. When Ciara Shaughnessy responded with a long ball for the Bears, Rehnquist responded with two more from the top left part of the arc to cut the lead to two. Rehnquist then had a beautiful alley-oop pass to Claire Baecher, who finished the layup for another bucket. Rehnquist hit two free throws to tie the game up at 21 with just under ten to play, and when Kellie Macdonald swooshed a beautiful three from the right baseline on the next possession, the Ephs found themselves with their first lead of the game.
The Ephs added to their lead, but the Bears fought back. Shelly DePina had a nice drive to the hoop to cut the Eph lead to five, and on the following possession, Boutilette added another bucket in the paint. DePina knocked down a three from the top left to tie the lead up at 30 with just over five remaining.
The Ephs, however, finished the half on an 18-4 run led by two lay-ups from Lisa Jaris, a jump shot and a driving hoop from Jill Greenberg, and a long-ball and hoop in the paint from Baecher. The Ephs went into the locker room with the 48-34 lead.
The second half started with the momentum on the Ephs' side, and they continued to add to their lead. The Bears, however, were able to pull within 11. With the Ephs up 16, Michaela Cosby hit two jump shots and Monica-Sabina Bharoocha added a layup to make the lead 58-47 with 14 minutes to play. Despite a lot of fight from the Bears on both the offensive and defensive ends, they were not able to overcome the double digits deficit as the Ephs ran away with the game.
Leading the way for the Bears tonight was DePina with 18 points. Cosby and Williamson were also both in double digits with 12 points each. The team shot 43.5% from the field.
Baecher led the way for the Ephs with a double double – 25 points and 10 rebounds. Rehnquist added 19 off the bench and Greenberg had another 16 for the Ephs, who shot 57.1% on the night. All Ephs who were dressed for the game saw minutes in tonight's matchup.
After the game, Coach Pat Manning commented on Rehnquist's play: "Grace is such a dangerous player, and to [be able to] have somebody like that who is so explosive come into the game, that's great for us."
She added, "She's a tough player to stop. She plays with a lot of energy. She kind of gives everyone a boost when she comes in. To me, one of the most important roles on a team is the first kid who comes in off the bench. Having Grace able to do that and be as explosive as she is is such an added bonus for us."
Overall, Manning said it was her team's defense, not its offense that was the key in tonight's win: "Bridgewater is a very good team off the dribble. They attack the ball. They were just beating us to the basket [early]. It came down to us having to switch gears on defense a little bit. We went to a zone, and that took the middle away. Once we switched to a 2-3 zone, that really did good things."
Finally, she added how important clearing the bench was for the Ephs: "[Everyone getting a chance to play] was great. Andrea Dunchus got her first college points. She looked good. I thought Megan Rogers did really well with three rebounds. I thought Jen Borderud really came on tonight – 3-for-3, six points, three assists, two steals. The was a great run for her, so I was really happy about that."
With the win, the Ephs move on to play Daemen College in the tournament's Championship Game, which is tomorrow at 3:00. The Bears will play Middlebury in the Consolation Game at 1:00. For more details on the Daemen-Middlebury matchup, please see below.
The Daemen College Wildcats (8-0) defeated the Middlebury Panthers (2-2) 59-41 tonight in the second game of the Williams Holiday Classic.
The Wildcats started the game with a 14-to-2 run to take an 18-10 lead with just over ten minutes to play in the first frame. The run was led by two free throws and a layup from Chelsea Andorka. The layup came off of an offensive rebound. After Andorka missed two free throws several possessions later, though, Middlebury cut the lead to two behind a layup from Katie Ritter.
As the Wildcats started building back up their lead, Panther guard Tracy Borsinger hit a huge three from the top left part of the arc to cut the lead back to four with just over four to play. Ellie Allen, however, responded with a layup for the Wildcats. She was fouled on the play and converted the free throw to push the lead back to seven. The Wildcats would hold the lead for the rest of the half and led 30-23 at the break.
Out of the break, the Wildcats added to their lead. Allen scored the first 11 points off of four layups, a jumper, and a free throw. As a team, the Wildcats went on a 13-3 run to open the half – holding Middlebury to no points from the field. The Panthers finally broke the spell with 10:41 on the clock when Borsinger hit a pretty jumper. The hoop, however, could not start an offensive run for the Panthers. When Andorka swooshed a three from the top right to push the lead to 22 with just over six minutes to play – the largest lead of the game to that point– the lead proved too much for the Panthers to overcome.
Leading the way tonight for the Wildcats was Allen with 20 points. Andorka added 13 for the Wildcats, who shot 33.3% on the night.
Although no Panthers had double digits on the night, Borsinger and Sarah Marcus both had nine points. The Panthers shot 23.2% from the field.
