NEW LONDON, CT – Despite falling behind by nine points on two separate occasions in the third quarter, the Williams Ephs (8-10, 3-3 NESCAC) fought back to earn a 48-47 overtime win over the Connecticut College Camels (3-14, 1-4 NESCAC) thanks to a spectacular 24-point, 8-rebound, 7-steal effort by forward
Arianna Gerig '25.
Even though Gerig scored half the Ephs' points, Eph head coach
Pat Manning emphasized that tonight's game was a team win. "We know that feeling all too well of being on the other side of a one-point game, so this was really important for us to take this game and to know that we can win a tight game on the road."
With 54 seconds left in overtime, Gerig drove to the hoop off the fast break and gave the Ephs a tenuous one-point lead. After Conn guard-forward Tiffani Bartee missed a layup in the paint, the Ephs failed to score on their next possession and the Camels were therefore granted a second chance to win with eight seconds to go. Forward Rebecca Oberman-Levine, the lone Camel to score in double figures, missed a jump shot attempt, but the ball went out of bounds off Williams, giving Conn one last shot to steal the game. Guard Emily Tripp couldn't capitalize, missing a contested layup as time expired to preserve the Ephs' victory.
"We couldn't seem to buy a basket for big stretches, but we gutted it out," remarked Manning. "I give Conn a lot of credit. They play really impressively and make you work for everything you can get."
Gerig's 24 points marked a season high, and the second-highest point total for the Ephs all year, behind a 25-point effort by guard
Maggie Meehan '22 against St. Lawrence back on November 19
th. The Ephs' first-year forward did not sacrifice efficiency for volume, going an impressive 10 for 16 (62.5%) from the floor. Forward
Maddy Mandyck '23 (8p, 12r) fell two points shy of a double-double and led both teams in rebounding, while guard
Mia Holtze '23 (7p, 10r) once again contributed valuable minutes off the bench.
"Arianna came up big all game on both ends of the floor," commented Manning, who was especially impressed by Gerig's and Mandyck's performances. "Maddy's rebounding helped us, especially in the key minutes of the game."
Oberman-Levine (10p, 11r) posted the game's only double-double, and Bartee (8p, 8r), guard Molly Cronin (9p), and guard-forward Jaycee Rojik (8p, 4r) each made significant contributions on offense for the Camels.
Though the Ephs took a 12-6 lead towards the end of the first quarter, the Camels immediately fought back with an 8-0 run and kept the lead throughout the rest of the first half. At halftime, the Camels were up six thanks to a three-pointer by Cronin with under a minute to go in the half.
Williams fell further behind early in the third quarter. Conn took two separate nine-point leads, both off of three-pointers, and threatened to increase the lead further by holding the Ephs scoreless from nearly four minutes towards the end of the quarter. The Camels, however, couldn't score either, and Mandyck converted two layups in the final minute to narrow the deficit to five.
Gerig hit two shots of her own in the first minute of the fourth quarter to make it a one-point game, but Conn managed to get the lead back to four on a series of free throws by Bartee and Oberman-Levine. Meehan, however, cut the lead back to one with a three-pointer with 6:08 to play in the fourth quarter. After a nearly three-minute scoring drought by both teams, Eph guard
Ellie Tounkara '25 hit a jumper – her only make of the game – to give the Ephs a 41-40 lead, their first since early in the second quarter.
Rojik immediately responded with a make to give the Camels the lead back, but the Ephs tied the game on a free throw by Gerig and took the lead back with a Mandyck layup. Camel guard Aislinn McMahon, however, was fouled by Meehan with 49 seconds to play and made both free throws to tie the game again. Neither team managed to score for the rest of regulation.
Cronin scored the first points of overtime by making one of two free throws following a foul on Tounkara, but Holtze gave the Ephs the lead back with a layup on the ensuing possession. Tripp hit two free throws off another Tounkara foul to make it 47-46 Conn, but Gerig then hit the layup that ultimately turned out to be the game-winner.
Though the Ephs managed to claw their way to a win, the numbers didn't look pretty on the offensive side of the ball. Aside from Gerig, the team shot just 10 for 42 (23.8%) from the field, and including Gerig, who didn't attempt a shot from deep all night, combined to go just 2 for 17 (11.8%) from beyond the arc. The numbers improved, however, in the second half.
"In the first half, we were rushing and we were giving up the ball too soon, and not taking the best shots," admitted Manning. "At halftime, we emphasized spreading the ball around, and we made better decisions with the ball. We passed more often before we took our shots."
Despite not having their best offensive game, the Ephs played stout defense throughout, holding the Camels to an 18 for 67 (26.9%) mark from the field and limiting the impact of Oberman-Levine and Cronin, who combined to shoot just 7 for 32 (21.9%), in particular. The defensive effort turned out to be just strong enough to secure the win.
Next Monday at 5PM, the Ephs will play another road game in New London, this time against Mitchell (7-8, 0-0 NECC).
