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Williamstown MA- Following a two-game skid Williams was able to turn it around in a 65-55 win over Trinity College. Taylor Shea lead the Ephs posting a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. The win gives the Ephs confidence as they head into a showdown against archrival Amherst tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. in Chandler Gymnasium. Williams lost in the first meeting earlier this season and will be seeking redemption.
"We really needed this win and it is good to be back on track. With this win we clinched a home game in the NESCAC tournament so that takes some of the pressure off of us," Coach Manning said of the importance of the win.
The leading scorer in the game was Grace Rehnquist who had 18 points and eight rebounds. Trinity was lead by Kristen Ciarleglio who had 11 points and six rebounds.
Coach Manning praised her reserves saying, "Jen [Borderud], Grace [Rehnquist], Lisa [Jaris] and Danny [Rainer] all came off the bench for us and gave us a spark. Jen was able to push the ball and Grace was able to knock down a couple of shots"
In the final minutes of the first half Williams went on a 9-3 run which swung the momentum in its favor. Grace Rehnquist took advantage of a shorter defender and hit a turnaround jumper on the block. On the next possession Rehnquist came off a Shea screen and hit a pull up shot from about 10 feet. Then with time expiring in the half, Jill Greenberg hit a three from the top of the key to put Williams up 31-25.
Williams carried the momentum over into the second half going on a 6-2 run to start the half. Greenberg started it with a jumper, which was followed on the next possession with a Baecher reverse layup. Fahey hit a long two to try to get Trinity going, but Williams kept their foot on the gas with a fastbreak layup from Shea who used her athleticism to beat her defender down the floor yet again. The layup made the score 37-27 and forced a Trinity timeout only three minutes into the half. Trinity would not come within 10 for the rest of the game.
The game started off very sloppy. Both teams committed a lot of fouls and unforced turnovers, and the score was only 5-4 Trinity five minutes into the game. Then Grace Rehnquist came off the bench stroked two nice threes from the right wing, injecting some energy into the Ephs, and forcing a Trinity timeout with 13:13 left in the half and the score 12-9.
On the poor start Coach Manning said "I think we came out a little sluggish. We need to run and push the pace and we did not do that to start the game. I was happy that even though we weren't converting offensively we still played good defense."
Then coming out of the timeout Jen Borderud shook her defender by going behind the back and hit Taylor Shea for an open 10 foot jumper on the baseline. Shea was able to get another easy basket by beating her defender down the floor for a fastbreak layup. Despite Williams' good play Trinity was still with four with 8:50 left in the half.
Coming out of the timeout Trinity went on a run. Kaitlin Ciarleglio drove by her defender and hit a scoop shot for a layup and then on the next possession Kristen Fahey hit a three, giving Trinity the lead 19-18. But Williams answered with a Lisa Jaris put back off an offensive rebound, and with 3:43 left on the clock the score was knotted 22-22.
Even though Trinity went down by 10 early in the second half they continued to play hard and had a nice set play where Ciarleglio came off a back screen and got a wide open layup. Michelle Royals made a strong play when she drove by her defender and was able to convert a difficult layup. Yet Rehnquist continued to have a great game hitting threes on consecutive possessions for the second time of the night. The score was 59-45 with 5:15 left in the game.
Neither team shot very well. Williams shot 38% from the field for the game and Trinity shot 33.3%. In the second half Trinity struggled from behind the arch shooting 0-8. Also after a lot of turnovers to start the game both teams settled down and Williams only had 8 turnovers compared to Trinity's 14.
