WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – The Williams women's
basketball team dropped its first game of the year tonight to the
Tufts Jumbos (9-2, 1-0 NESCAC) 63-40. The matchup was the opening
of league play for both teams. The Ephs (11-1, 0-1 NESCAC) had
previously won 11 straight games.
After trading the first couple hoops, the Jumbos went on a short
run to seize the lead. Kate Barnosky stole the ball and lobbed it
ahead to Tiffany Kornegay who finished and was fouled. She made the
ensuing free throw. A couple Eph possessions later, Barnosky
stole the ball again and had a pretty bounce pass in the paint to
Caitlin McClure. McClure finished the pass to give the Jumbos a
four-point lead just under five minutes in. Kornegay then
swooshed a jump shot to make it seven straight points for
Tufts.
It looked like the Ephs might gain some momentum when point
guard Jill
Greenberg drove to the hoop and was fouled. She converted
the three-point play. The Jumbos, however, pushed the lead to
14 behind a three-pointer apiece from Hannah Foley and Liz Moynihan
before the Ephs scored again.
Grace
Rehnquist, who has been a spark all year for the Ephs off the
bench, broke the 12-0 run with a beautiful long ball from the top
with 6:32 to play. The field goal, however, was the Ephs' final of
the half, and the Jumbos went into the locker room with the 32-15
lead.
The Ephs came out of the break fighting to get back into the
game. They found their first points of the half off of a pair
of three-point plays. Claire
Baecher backed her defender down in the paint and was
fouled. She made the resulting free throw. Lisa Jaris, who
was unstoppable on the offensive glass for the Ephs, was then
fouled on a put back and also converted the play.
Despite a hard fight from the Ephs, the Jumbos' shooting hand
was too hot, and they continued to add to their lead –
pushing it to as many as 34 before the game was out.
Leading the way tonight for the Jumbos was McClure with 14
points. Kornegay and Moynihan also reached double digits with 13
and 12 points respectively. The Jumbos shot 41.4% from he
floor.
Baecher posted a double double tonight for the Ephs with 11
points and 10 rebounds. She was the only Eph in double
digits. Williams shot 21.1% from the field.
Said Coach Pat Manning after the game, "I give all the
credit to Tufts. They just outplayed us in every aspect of the
game. I wasn't happy with how we responded to their intensity. I
think we'll learn from that and get better from that."
The Ephs look to bounce back tomorrow against Bates. Tip-off is
at 2 PM.
Looking towards tomorrow, Manning added, "I think that
tells a lot about a team how you come back from a night like this.
Nothing was falling for us tonight on either side of the
floor. It was the worst defense we played all season. It'll
be a big test for us. I'm glad we don't have to wait a week to
play."
Finally, she said, "It's important that we go back to
basics – go back to what made us have the run (11 straight
wins) in the first place."
