Box Score Saratoga Springs, NY- The Williams College women's basketball team improved their record to 4-0 today with their 69-52 road victory over the Skidmore College Thoroughbreds. Junior Devon Caveney continued her hot start to the 2015-2016 season, leading all scorers with 19 points, including four three pointers. Caveney's outside game was balanced extremely well on the inside by senior captains Katie Litman and Oge Uwanaka, who each recorded a double-double in points and rebounds on the night. Williams will look to remain undefeated when they return home for a matchup against Pine Manor on Friday at 6:00 PM in Chandler Gymnasium as part of the Williams Classic, which will also include Clarkson University and Bates College.
The game was more competitive than the final score would indicate, in fact the Thoroughbreds outscored the Ephs in each of the first two quarters. One of the keys to the early success of Skidmore was their ability to force turnovers, especially off of their full court press. Skidmore players combined for seven steals in the first half, causing problems for Williams as they tried to bring the ball into their offensive half. Once they got there, Williams struggled to put the ball in the basket, shooting only 30% from the field in the half.
Skidmore freshman Maya Bell led the Thoroughbreds in the first quarter with six points, contributing to the 18-17 lead that Skidmore had built up by the end of the first ten minutes of play. Two made free throws by Bell extended that lead to eight with two minutes to play in the second half. Just as the game looked to be getting out of control, Caveney delivered, hitting a clutch three pointer with 28 seconds left in the half to cut the lead to five. Williams almost finished the half with even more momentum when freshman Lexi Jones connected on a buzzer beating attempt from just inside half court, releasing the ball a fraction of a second too late to make the basket stand.
Williams nevertheless came out firing out of the break, outscoring Skidmore 19-4 in the third quarter. The Eph run started when Uwanaka and Litman made back to back layups to cut the lead to one. Then Caveney took over, scoring the next nine points for the Ephs, including two three pointers and an old fashioned three, drawing a foul when she drove hard to the basket while still making the layup. Williams head coach Pat Manning credited the play of sophomore point guard Ammani Fernandez as a catalyst to the impressive Williams run. Fernandez dished out four of her five assists in the second half while adding nine points of her own. Manning also noted the hard work of junior Lauren McCall on the glass, calling it one of her best rebounding performances to date.
Williams went into the fourth quarter with a ten point lead and kept up the level of play that they had started the half with, barely letting Skidmore within single digits for the rest of the game. Hard work on both ends of the floor led to 13 points off of turnovers and 8 second chance points in the quarter. Once again it was Litman and Uwanaka doing much of the dirty work. On two consecutive possessions, Uwanaka grabbed an offensive rebound and put the lay up back herself, continuing her dominance in the paint that was on display for the whole game.
Following the game, Manning said, "We made smarter decisions after forcing a lot of passes in the first half when they were playing very aggressively on defense. I thought we did a better job of taking our time with the ball in the second half and working it around until we got a good look." Williams, because of their strong early season play, has risen to #22 in the national rankings for Division III. When asked about the new ranking, Manning said, "It's good to be recognized, but we're not going to put too much stock in the ranking. We're just trying to focus on one game at a time. We've got a lot of tough games coming up and hopefully we will continue taking care of business."
