Box Score WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.—How hard is it to go over 10 minutes without a field goal and win a basketball game?
The Williams women's basketball team knows. Despite dealing with a shooting drought that ultimately saw them drain just a single field goal in the game's final 11:20, the Ephs gamely hung on to defeat equally tenacious Skidmore, 50-45, on Tuesday evening. "It felt like forever," said Williams coach Pat Manning on her team's shooting struggles. "It was crazy. Nothing came easy tonight offenseively."
Nevertheless, a win is a win to the No. 11 Ephs (8-0). The victory was their eighth straight over the Thoroughbreds (1-3), who last defeated Williams in 2001. This was also the third straight contest between the two teams in as many years in which neither topped 60 points. "This is a very athletic team," said Manning on Skidmore. "They make you work for everything that you get."
The scoring ledger was top-heavy: Angela Botiba (16 points, 11 rebounds), Amber Holgate (13 points) and Molly McLaughlin (12) scored all but four of Skidmore's points, including the Thoroughbreds' first 29 ("They came in ready to play hard," commented Manning). Similarly, only Ellen Cook, who scored 17 of her game-high 23 points in the first half, and Devon Caveney, who chipped in 12 and notched her sixth double-digit scoring effort, were the only Ephs with more than five points on the evening.
In the end—and the beginning—Cook was Williams' main catalyst. After carrying the team's offense through the first half with a series of penetrating drives and a trio of three-pointers, the senior co-captain finished off a rapid-fire passing play in the game's final minute by underhanding a layup softly off the front rim to give the Ephs their first field goal in 10:41, a stretch during which the Thoroughbreds resolutely whittled a 13-point Eph lead down to a single point.
Cook's basket shifted the pressure back on to Skidmore, who had to foul off an inbounds play after Lindsey Davis' three-pointer missed the mark and the Ephs gained the ball via the possession arrow. Then, too, it was Cook who carried the Ephs, calmly sinking both her free throws with 5.4 seconds left to finally put the game out of reach.
The free throws were a fitting coda to a foul-filled first half, most of which the two teams spent in lukewarm lockstep. Neither led by more than a basket until McLaughlin made a pair of free throws to stretch the Thoroughbreds' tenuous lead to 18-13.
To be sure, Skidmore earned its lead, to that point almost completely shutting down a Williams offense that had averaged nearly 70 points a game over the Ephs' last half-dozen contests. Leading the way was Botiba, who spun cleanly around her defender to get to the basket on multiple occasions and played stellar defense in the paint.
Five was the largest the Skidmore lead would get, though, as the Ephs intermittently broke through in transition in the period's waning moments to gain a 32-25 lead heading into halftime. The last three of those points for the Ephs came at the buzzer, as Katie Litman somehow managed to collect Cook's seemingly errant and dish in one motion to MaryKate O'Brien, who somehow managed to bank in a shot from downtown just as the clock showed red.
Though the Ephs expanded their advantage in the early part of the second half, they struggled to break the Thoroughbreds' full court press and began to see fewer and fewer chances. Then, with score stuck at 46-39, McLaughlin, who had been benched after picking up her fourth foul, returned to the court and cleaned up a rebound to bring Skidmore back within a basket. A pair of free throws from Holgate made it 46-45, but that was as close as the Thoroughbreds would get.
The Ephs actually led continuously for the game's final 25 minutes, but Manning was the first to admit that the lead never felt truly secure. "It was just one of those nights," said Manning. "Fortunately our defense pulled us through."
Both teams face opponents from the NESCAC on Saturday afternoon. Skidmore is due to pay a visit to Middlebury to face the Panthers, while the Ephs will host Little Three rival Wesleyan in Chandler Gym. Both games tip off at 2 p.m.
