Box Score WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. – The Williams College Ephs (6-2, 0-0, NESCAC) beat the Babson College Beavers (4-4, 0-0, NEWMAC) today 70-60. A strong defensive showing in the second quarter allowed the Ephs to outscore the Beavers 20-6 and establish a 35-23 lead.
Play was pretty even in the first quarter.
Mairi Smith set an offensive screen and then turned around right under the basket to rebound the ball and put it back up for a basket, giving the Ephs a 13-11 lead. Babson, however, led 17-15 at ther end of the first quarter.
The Ephs' scoring was truly a team effort in the second quarter. The Ephs rattled off a 13-point run before the Beavers scored a basket. On one play,
Tatum Leuenberger stole the ball from the Beavers on defense, passed to
Ellie Tounkara, Tounkara passed to
Arianna Gerig, and Gerig passed it back to Leuenberger for a 3. The Ephs' defense kept the Beavers offense to only 6 points in the quarter.
The Beavers outscored the Ephs in the third quarter 19-15 to narrow the Eph lead to eight, 50-42.
The Ephs held onto their lead in the fourth quarter.
Mairi Smith faked a shot and passed to
Cortland McBarron for a jump shot to boost the Eph lead 57-46.
Mairi Smith also performed a pick-and-roll play with
Arianna Gerig, Gerig passed to her, and Smith scored with a layup. Near the end of the game the Beavers had to foul the Ephs for chances to get the ball to back and score, but the Ephs made good on 11 of their 18 free throw throws to claim a 70-60 win.
Arianna Gerig achieved a double double and was named to the Shooting Touch All-Tournament team today after scoring 28 points, grabbing 11 rebounds, and registering 7 assists.
Cortland McBarron had 10 rebounds and 8 points,
Mairi Smith scored 10 points, and
Ellie Tounkara scored 9 for the Ephs. Eph head coach
Pat Manning said, "Today was an all-around team win. Babson is a really explosive team with explosive point guards who have the ability to shoot from the outside and come back at any time. We stuck to our plan and it worked today."
Eph head coach
Pat Manning also highlighted the play of
Ellie Tounkara and
Tatum Leuenberger: "
Ellie Tounkara performed well on both sides of the court today, and
Tatum Leuenberger had three key-timed threes that rose the energy. The free-throws today were important down the stretch of the game to keep us ahead too."
After a long stretch of home games, the Ephs will be traveling to Northampton, Mass. to play Smith College on Wednesday Dec the 6
th at 7pm.
