Box Score WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. – A cold shooting night and foul trouble for the Ephs leading scorer
Arianna Gerig hampered the Eph offense enabling Springfield to defeat Williams tonight in Chandler Gym, 67-41.
The Ephs entered tonight's contest off a strong performance against fifth ranked Rhode Island College, where they were edged by the Anchorwomen by a point. The Springfield Pride entered with a 3-game win streak that included a 56-46 over Middlebury on the road.
Gerig tallied 7 of the Ephs first 14 points and the Ephs led 14-13 at the end of the first quarter
The Ephs
Kate Keenan hit a three from the right side to boost the Eph lead to 17-13 early in the second quarter. Springfield's Lindsay Laughlin hit a jumper to narrow the Eph lead to 17-15, but Gerig answered with a jumper and the Ephs went up 19-15.
The Eph offense stalled when Gerig went to the bench with her second personal foul with 7:23 left in first half. She remained out of the game for the full 7:23. Eph head coach
Pat Manning commented, "We just didn't do any of the little things. We knew how strong a rebounding team they were. They had better energy than we did. We just didn't come ready. Ari (Gerig) getting in early foul trouble hasn't happened before so we had to figure that out on the fly."
Springfield's Anglea Czeremcha scored 9 straight points for the Pride with her team trailing 19-15 and lifted the Pride to a 24 -21 lead.
Mairi Smith hit a jump shot in the lane in the lane for the Ephs final points of the first half. Two Rachel Vinton layups gave the Pride a 28-23 lead at the break.
Both teams were cold in first half Springfield hit on 30% of their shots,while the Ephs hit on 29% of their shots from the floor.
In the third quarter Springfield used a full court press to turn the game in their favor. An Angela Czeremcha turnaround jumper in the lane gave the Pride a 38-28 lead with 5:10 left in the quarter. Gerig scored inside to make it 38-30, but Czeremcha answered with a layin of her own 40-30.
A three-point play by Arianna Geirg narrowed the Pride lead to 7 at the end of three quarters 42-35.
The Pride rattled off 19 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to wrap up the win 67-41.
Arianna Geirg scored 16 points and
Kate Keenan added 14 for the Ephs.
Springfield was led by Angela Czeremcha who poured in a game-high 28 points.
Next up for the Ephs is a home encounter with county rival Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts on Sunday at 1:00 PM.
