NEW LONDON, CT – Thanks to a 9-0, fourth-quarter run and a strong finish on both ends of the floor, the Williams Ephs (9-10, 3-3 NESCAC) topped the Mitchell Mariners (7-10, 2-4 NECC) 53-50 to earn their first two-game winning streak of 2022.
"Mitchell's a very quick, athletic team, and they made some tough shots," admitted Eph head coach
Pat Manning following the win. "But we were able to hold them off for a couple of possessions and capitalize after that. This was another gutsy win."
With under 20 seconds to play and leading by three, guard
Maggie Meehan dribbled to the top of the key, spun past Mitchell guard Dede Stevenson, and drove towards the basket from the left side. The Ephs' captain, realizing that the shot clock was about to expire, heaved a perfect floater that gave the Ephs a 5-point lead with 17.6 seconds to play, effectively clinching the game.
"Maggie's a confident player, and she's our leader," remarked Manning when asked about Meehan's clutch shooting down the stretch. "She came up big, especially on that last shot she took, and she just stayed composed and focused."
Meehan (12p) led the Ephs in scoring and hit a number of difficult shots late in the game to help propel the Ephs to victory. Forward
Maddy Mandyck '23 (9p, 17r) fell just one point shy of a double-double and grabbed several important rebounds, including an offensive board with under a minute to go to that ultimately led to Meehan's game-sealing shot. Point guard
Devin Biesbrock '23 (8p, 4a) provided a spark after returning from a five-game absence.
"It's great," said Manning on having Biesbrock back in the lineup for the first time since January 8
th against Amherst. "She runs the floor and pushes the pace for us, and it's great to have the whole team healthy again. That's really important."
For the Mariners, Stevenson (22p, 10r) notched a double-double and shot an efficient 9 for 18 (50.0%) from the field. Guard Le'Sandra Turner (8p, 7r, 6a) stuffed the stat sheet and accounted for all but two of the Mariners' assists, and guard Sam McKenna, despite shooting just 3 for 14 (21.4%), kept Mitchell in the game with several timely shots in the second half.
The Ephs overcame a 20-9 deficit at the beginning of the second quarter with a 14-1 run, in which six different Ephs scored, that spanned most of the quarter. After Mitchell tied the game at 23 on a jump shot by Stevenson, the Ephs scored the last five points of the half on a layup by Tounkara and a three-point play by Mandyck, which occurred with under a second to play on the half.
Though the Ephs began the second half by extending their lead to eight points on a jump shot by Gerig, the Mariners fought back and tied the game with an 8-0 run that featured two consecutive three-pointers by Stevenson. The Ephs, however, didn't surrender the lead. After Mandyck made two free throws following a shooting foul by Turner, Mitchell guard-forward Jermia Dumas made a layup to tie the game. Taylor answered with an elbow jumper that looked short at first but rolled in after a few bounces to make it 40-38 Ephs at the end of the third.
McKenna, however, gave the Mariners the lead back on their first possession of the fourth quarter on a three-pointer and then hit a layup to give Mitchell a three-point lead. The Ephs, however, responded with a 9-0 run, culminating in a baseline floater by Meehan that made it 49-43 Ephs and foreshadowed what was to come.
The Mariners weren't done yet, as Gedeon hit two free throws and McKenna made another three to make it a one-point game. A jump shot by forward
Arianna Gerig '25 gave the Ephs some breathing room with exactly three minutes on the clock.
The Ephs maintained possession for more than a minute after Stevenson turned the ball over by stepping out of bounds with 1:26 to go. Mandyck secured a key rebound off a Meehan miss with 59 seconds to play, and McBarron fought for a jump ball off another shot by Meehan that further lengthened Williams' possession with 38 seconds to go. The Ephs' star guard did the rest.
Manning cited the Ephs' composure as the most significant reason why they've prevailed in close games lately after often falling just short earlier in the season. "We've been in so many close games this year, and nobody panics. We've been on the other end of these games, but we're more composed than we were earlier in the year in those situations."
Though the Mariners outrebounded the Ephs 49-41, including a 15-14 margin on offense, the Ephs consistently found ways to score after securing offensive rebounds, scoring 18 second-chance points to the Mariners' 3. Mitchell shot 6 for 22 (27.3%) from deep compared to just 2 for 12 (16.7%) for Williams, but the Ephs moved the ball more effectively on offense, racking up 15 assists – nearly twice as many as the Mariners' eight.
This Friday at 7PM, the Ephs will continue their stretch of road games in Connecticut against Wesleyan (9-10, 2-4 NESCAC, 0-1 Little Three) in their NESCAC matchup. Williams won the Little Three matchup, 71-58, on December 11
th.
