WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. – The Williams College Ephs (5-2, 0-0, NESCAC) held the lead against the Wheaton College Lyons (3-4, 0-0, NEWMAC) for the full game, winning 52-42.
Today was a large team effort by the Ephs. They moved quickly against the Lyons to find openings and out rebounded the Lyons defensively 35 to 27. However, the speed of the Lyons’ movement caused the Ephs to turn over the ball 21 times. Eph head coach Pat Manning commented on this: “We’re seeing growth in our players. We are a young team, but we have higher expectation for ourselves as far as execution goes.” Despite the turnovers, the Ephs still held the lead. Arianna Gerig finished the game with 18 points, Kate Keenan finished with 10 points, and Cortland McBarron finished with 10 rebounds.
Persistent in the first quarter, the Ephs continued to drive in under the basket, pulling the Lyons defense with them. To keep the lead 12-5, Arianna Gerig drove in under the basket and passed back out to the opener shooter, Ellie Tounkara, who made a jumper for two. Fast break after fast break for the last two minutes of the quarter, the Ephs held the lead as Tatum Leuenberger added 2 with a buzzer-beater jump-shot, giving the Ephs a 16-5 lead.
The 2nd quarter was the quarter of free-throws for the Lyons and the quarter of threes for the Ephs. Kate Keenan drained 2, and Izzy Sullivan and Arianna Gerig scored 1 three each. Cortland McBarron had a quick fake and went back up to put it in for 2, bringing the Ephs’ lead to 30-18. Again, in the last two minutes of the quarter, the Lyons pushed the Ephs with quick transitions and went up for layups to draw fouls. By the half, both Arianna Gerig and Kate Keenan achieved double-digit scoring. And, leading the whole game so far, the Ephs were out-rebounding the Lyons 22-17.
The 3rd quarter opened with a three put up by Ellie Tounkara. Then, the quarter picked up speed even faster than the first two. With faster movement from the Lyons, both sides ran back and forth with the ball pressuring the other for faster shots, passes, and rebounds. Despite the speed, the Ephs found the openings. Kate Keenan found one by dribbling slightly by her defender and then putting up the jump shot for two. Coming from the opposite baseline, Logan Coster scored with a layup off a pass for Arianna Gerig. The quarter ended with the Ephs continuing to lead, 46-32.
About half way into the 4th quarter, Logan Coster faked a pass to Mairi Smith, the Lyons defender followed it up, and on her way down Coster passed to Smith. Mairi Smith faked a shot, her defender followed her up, and then she put it up for a two. On the very next play, the Ephs moved the ball around which opened up Mairi Smith for a two from the free throw line.
Eph head coach Pat Manning remarked, “I think we weren’t sharp tonight on the offensive end. We didn’t take care of the ball. We had 21 turnovers which is the most we’ve had this season. I give a lot of credit to Wheaton College; they play really hard and make you work for your shots.”
For their next game in the Shooting Touch Tournament, the Ephs will face Babson College in Chandler Gymnasium at 3 pm tomorrow.
