Box Score SPRINGFIELD, MA — Sophomore Ellen Cook led all scorers with 17 points Tuesday night to lead the Williams College women's basketball team to a 43-31 win over host Springfield College.
The Ephs improved to 3-0 on the season and will next play Sunday at home in a 4 p.m. contest against cross-county rival Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Springfield dropped to 1-2 on the season.
"We were very happy with our defensive execution," Ephs' head coach Pat Manning said. "And Ellen Cook was a spark for us on both ends of the floor."
The Ephs overcame a cold-shooting night — they finished 31.6 percent from the floor (18 of 57) and just 3 of 23 (13 percent) from beyond the arc — based on a strong defensive effort. Cook was the only Eph to score more than five points in the win, but nine Ephs did get into the scoring column and senior Danny Rainer pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds to go with her five points.
It was as cold inside as it was outside in the first half, as the host Pride went without a field goal for 14 minutes and 55 seconds. Springfield was 1 of 20 from the floor at one point, and combined with its 11 turnovers, was left with little time to score.
The Ephs had trouble taking advantage, missing on their first nine three-point attempts of the night. At one point, Williams was 1 of 13 from the floor, but managed to finish the half 8 of 27 for 29.6 percent.
Trailing 4-2 eight-and-a-half minutes into the contest, Williams got some good work from first year Katie Litman off the bench. The frosh tied the game at 4-4 with 8:59 remaining on a jumper, then put home a lay-in off an assist from Cook for a 6-4 lead with 10:07 left. A steal by Cook led to her hitting two free throws — she finished the half with a team-high seven points, four rebounds and two assists — for an 8-4 lead and after a 4:30 stretch of no scoring, a Claire Baecher steal led to Jennie Harding draining the first three-pointer of the night that left the Ephs up 11-4 with 5:17 remaining in the half.
From that point on the scoring picked up pace. Springfield scored six straight points to climb within 11-10, but a big Cook three-pointer off an assist from Grace Rehnquist — set up by a nice defensive rebound by Litman — gave Williams a 14-10 lead.
A Cook steal with 1:33 to go led to a Rehnquist jumper and an 18-10 lead, but the Pride fought back to 20-14 by the half when Biondolillo scored a putback at the buzzer.
A 9-2 run to start the final 20 minutes helped Williams stretch that six-point halftime lead to 13 at 29-16. Baecher got things rolling by hitting a jumper, and Rainer did the same on the next Ephs possession. A defensive rebound by Rainer led to a Cook - she scored 10 of her 17 points in the final stanza — lay-up, and then after a Baecher board on the defensive end, Cook drained a jumper with an assist going to Jen Borderud.
Sophomore Kellie Macdonald saw her first action of the season mid-way through the second half and immediately made it count with jumper off a Baecher assist that made it 31-19. Rainer's old-fashioned three-point play in the paint with 9:41 remaining gave the Ephs their largest lead of the night at 34-19.
After being beaten on the glass in the first half, the Ephs bounced back to even things by game's end 40-40, thanks to a 22-16 edge over the final 20 minutes.
Cook added seven rebounds, four blocks, three steals and two assists to her 17-point night. Litman had four points and six rebounds.
