WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS.— Smith's (7-1, 0-0, NEWMAC) defense and paint presence pushed them over the edge to defeat Williams (5-4, 0-0, NESCAC) 67-60.
At the beginning of the fourth, Williams faced a five point deficit. Though the Pioneers tallied the first points of the quarter, Devin Biesbrock retaliated with a layup on the other end, and tipped momentum in the Ephs favor with a three on the very next play. The game was now 47-45, but that would be as close as Williams would get for the remainder of the game. The Pioneers went on to reassert themselves in the lane— scoring twelve in the paint and drawing fouls to push the game out of reach.
Smith got off to a quick start as the game began, scoring on their first possession. The Ephs, on the other hand, just couldn't see one fall, and scored their first basket almost three minutes into the quarter. A bright spot was the Eph defense, grabbing four steals in the quarter which led to nine points. Williams outscored Smith 19-14 in the first and on better efficiency, downing 53% of their shots to Smith's 41%.
In the second quarter, Smith ramped up their defensive intensity and Williams' offense faltered. Though Smith shot an even lower 31%, Williams was only able to make two of their seventeen attempts in the quarter— both Biesbrock pullups on the perimeter. With these offensive struggles, the Pioneers closed the gap, pounding the paint for eight points and four foul shots.
After the break the Ephs brought renewed energy, but a string of fouls took the wind out of their sails. Five fouls across the squad brought the Pioneers into the bonus before the five minute mark, and the push from foul shots and hesitant Williams paint defense allowed them to widen their lead to six at the start of the fourth.
Though the Ephs got close, they couldn't quite put it together following Biesbrock's run, despite a ten point quarter for Maddy Mandyck, who ended the game with a 22 point, 12 rebound double-double.
Head coach Pat Manning felt that the team didn't have the intensity they needed to win the game, saying "I don't think Smith was at their sharpest, but neither were we. I just felt like we didn't have the energy we had on Saturday. I told [the team], if we had played with that energy we brought against Babson, we would've won today. We just didn't click. We didn't put together a good game."
Especially frustrating was the paint defense, on which Manning remarked, "[it was] way too easy. You're supposed to double them every time they catch the ball and we were giving them one-on-ones. We made it too easy for them. They got any shot they wanted in the paint— that wasn't our gameplan."
However, the press and perimeter defense proved to be bright spots throughout the game, and kept Smith scoring low even as the Ephs struggled. "I thought we did some good things defensively, on their guards. They have really good guards, their point guard was defensive player of the year, I thought we did a good job on her, and she's a scorer. 25's a shooter, we did a good job on her. They have a kid off the bench, #5, that can really light it up, we shut her down. We did it in spurts, but again, it was rebounding— how many O-boards did they get, how many second chances. That was frustrating," said Manning on the team's defense.
Moving forward, Manning stressed that "We'll regroup. Saturday's a Little Three game with Wesleyan. We'll get back on track, starting with practice tomorrow."
The Ephs will play their next game on the road in Middletown, Conn., this Saturday at 2PM, versus the Wesleyan Cardinals.
