WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. — Williams (1-0, 0-0, NESCAC) defeated Vassar (1-3, 0-0, Liberty League) tonight in Chandler Gym, 74-52.
Williams ran out to an early lead in the first quarter, and maintained their edge throughout the game by way of their strong defense and conversions on the fast break. Their press and strong defense created 27 Vassar turnovers, which the Ephs were able to convert into 32 points.
After the Ephs' dominant first quarter, Vassar was able to shore up their defense in the second, going on a 13-5 run from 9:06 to 1:22. However, they weren't able to keep the same pressure into the third quarter, a fact that coach Pat Manning was pleased by. "I'm really happy with our effort and our intensity. We've really struggled in the past in the third quarter, so we focused at halftime on coming out strong, and in the third quarter we shot 53%. We need that consistency."
In the fourth quarter the game had begun to wind down, and after an explosive 22 third quarter points, five Ephs scored for a total of fifteen points.
On the Ephs' defense, Manning noted that "Vassar's explosive— they can hit threes and come back in a hurry, so we needed to be relentless and not let up at all." Manning also noted the strong pairing of Mia Holtze, who had a career-high 27 points, and Arianna Gerig, who had 6 steals and 7 assists, saying: "Arianna forces a lot of turnovers, [and] with seven assists she fed Mia a lot of the time, and Mia finished."
Despite these stellar performances, the game was cemented by contributions from the whole squad. Devin Biesbrock put up 14, 4, and 5 on 80% 3pt shooting and Maddy Mandyck had 9, 5, and 4 with 3 blocks and 4 steals.
Talking about the team effort, Manning stressed that "This is what we see in practice: we see that we have a lot of depth and our players can come in and make a difference, and this game they did."
Reflecting on tonight's result, Coach Manning said "I couldn't be happier with our first game. We have a tough road ahead, and a big tournament coming up. This was [Vassar's] fourth game, and this was only our first. We'll get better but this was a great start."
The Ephs' next match will be this Saturday, November 19th, in Chandler Gym as they begin the Morin Memorial Tournament vs. Albright College at 5PM.
