WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS.— Despite a career-high 22 point outing for
Arianna Gerig, Babson (6-0, 0-0, NEWMAC) was able to complete a comeback to defeat Williams (5-3, 0-0, NESCAC), 59-56.
Nearing the game's final moments, Babson's Samantha Smith was at the line, and sank a free throw to put the Beavers up three with 1:18 to play. Getting the rebound, Williams took the ball down the floor, but couldn't convert. Babson had one more possession, and ran down the clock but missed their jumper, giving the Ephs the ball. After a timeout, Williams had 24 seconds to cut the deficit. Back on offense, the Ephs had four looks at the basket after tenaciously pulling down three offensive boards, but the Babson defense held strong and the Beavers were able to round out the game 59-56.
The game started out neck and neck. Babson got to the lane, and put up four quick points from free throws and a layup. Williams responded with back to back threes from Ryann Taylor and Mia Holtze. The tide turned as Taylor blocked a layup with 6:24 to play. Devin Biesbrock sent the ball down the court to Maddy Mandyck for two, putting the Ephs up 8-4. The Beavers fought back, but the combination of Williams' defensive effort— which kept Babson to 22% shooting in the third— and their offensive energy led to a 16-11 lead going into the second.
The Beavers turned the ball over eight times to the Ephs' three in the second, but they focused on the offensive end, and saw the ball fall on over half their shots. On the last play, Megan Bauman, who led scorers in the first half with ten points, came off a screen with eight seconds left, finishing a scoop layup and bringing the deficit down to four.
After the break, Babson brought the game closer with back to back jumpers, and head coach Pat Manning called a 30 second timeout. Following the timeout, Babson kept their scoring going and took the lead, but Arianna Gerig took the game into her hands, scoring twelve points in a row. She started with three free throws followed by two strong drives to the baseline. She had five more points on the fast break, scoring through a foul plus the free throw, and one more layup forced the Babson timeout.
After the timeout, the Beavers began their retaliation, getting to the line for two free throws and using the final eight seconds of the quarter to push the ball up the floor for a layup.
In the fourth, the Beavers took back the game from the free throw line, making seven of their nine attempts from the stripe while slowly chipping away at Williams' lead. The Ephs had trouble seeing the ball fall, as they only made two of their eight attempts in the first nine minutes of the quarter, while Babson scored six points in the paint. The last of Babson's free throws brought the game to its final score of 59-56.
Following the game, Coach Manning shared her pride in the team's performance, saying "Even though it'll register as a loss, in a lot of ways this is a win for us, because we hadn't been playing great since Thanksgiving, or even going into Springfield. We weren't playing with the intensity that we needed. This was definitely the best effort that we've had all season, and we need to build on this. Babson is a really good team— they're ranked 17th in the country, and we took them right down to the wire. It's a learning experience for our team, but we're going to be better because of this game."
When asked what decided the game, Manning suggested that it came down to getting to the line: "We need to get to the line a little more. They went 19 times, and we went 11. We were settling for some jump shots when we should've driven it in and made the whistle blow for us."
She also remarked on how the Ephs' could have reduced Babson's trips to the line, saying "A lot of our fouls were handchecks. Every time a kid drives, and you put your hand on her back, it's an automatic foul whether you displace her or not. It seems like it's nothing sometimes, but it's the rule. We [committed those types of fouls], and let them get into the bonus. So if we take away two of those unnecessary fouls, and that's four fewer free throws— we win the game. We put them on the line just way too many times. Not as much from our defense in the post, as much as them hurting us off the drive."
The Ephs will play their next game this Wednesday against #6 ranked Smith, in Chandler Gym at 7PM.
