Box Score Brunswick, ME- Following a loss to Colby College on Friday night, the Williams College women's basketball team suffered their second loss in a row and their third loss in four conference games today at the hands of the Bowdoin College Polar Bears. Bowdoin (12-4/ 2-1 NESCAC) used a hot start to separate themselves from the Ephs, outscoring Williams 23-8 in the first quarter en route to their 74-62 victory. Williams (11-4/ 1-3 NESCAC) will return from their Maine road trip empty handed while still in a tough stretch of their season, as they will continue to face NESCAC opponents for their next three games, two of which will be on the road.
Williams was held scoreless for the first four minutes of the ball game before senior captain Oge Uwanaka broke through the Bowdoin defense for a layup. While the Polar Bear defense gave the Williams offense fits for the first ten minutes, Bowdoin senior Shannon Brady was busy being the offensive sparkplug for her team, scoring 12 of the first 16 Bowdoin points as part of her team-high 20 point performance. No other Polar Bear scored in double figures, with scoring responsibilities distributed over the entire Bowdoin roster, including 19 points off the bench.
Williams junior Devon Caveney, one of the leading scorers for the Ephs so far this season, had a tough day against a stingy Bowdoin defense, shooting only 3-12 from the field and only connecting on one of her eight three point attempts. Williams did not shoot poorly as a team, however. Today's contest marks the second straight game that the Ephs have lost while outshooting their opponent, connecting on 44% of attempts from the field while Bowdoin only made 37% of their shots. The stats that worked against the Ephs today were the ones that are often key to victory in tough conference games, especially while on the road. Bowdoin forced 22 Eph turnovers and only committed 12 of their own. Williams was also out-rebounded for the second straight game, especially on their defensive glass, with Bowdoin collecting 15 offensive rebounds to Williams' 6.
The Ephs went into halftime down 42-31 but kept fighting to pull the game within reach. Every time it looked as though Williams may have been making a run, someone from Bowdoin would make a big shot to end the run, sustaining the double digit lead that they had built in the first quarter throughout the second half. The gap was extended to as much as 20 points with 1:21 remaining in the third quarter when Shannon Brady made two free throws to put the Polar Bears up 55-35. The Williams captains Uwanaka and Katie Litman showed their leadership down the stretch. Litman scored 10 points in the second half while Uwanaka worked relentlessly on the defensive end and under the boards. In the end, the Polar Bear lead proved too deep a hole for the Ephs.
Williams sophomore Ammani Fernandez, who is a fraction of a point behind Caveney in points per game this season, also aided the Williams comeback effort. Fernandez scored a game high 23 points, including 12 in the second half, shooting 8-14 from the field and 6-6 from the foul line. Fernandez also dished out a game high five assists, and her ability to stay calm under pressure got the attention of her coach, Pat Manning. Coach Manning said, "I thought Ammani was a big reason why we started to come back in this game after such a bad start, she did a great job staying composed and finding her teammates."
Manning remains optimistic after a tough weekend for her team, saying, "The problems that we are having as a team right now are very fixable, we'll have to work a lot more on defense and do the little things that add up to wins. It's still just the middle of the season, we're still a work in progress, and we are definitely not a finished product yet."
The next test for Williams will be another road conference game at Hamilton College on Friday, where the Ephs will look to win their second NESCAC game.
