Ephs win fifth straight against Middlebury, 68-49
Chessie Jackson '11
MIDDLEBURY, VT. - Despite a slow start and twenty-one turnovers, the Williams women’s basketball team (15-5, 4-1) was able to power past Middlebury (10-9, 2-3) for their fifth consecutive victory and fourth conference win since falling to Bowdoin on January 18.
The Ephs kept the Panthers to just 20.8% shooting from the floor, and used a strong second half outing of 56% from the floor to extend their first half eleven point advantage.
Middlebury came out the gate strong with a 7-0 run to open play. This Williams team is certainly no stranger to playing from behind, and quickly bounced back. Mika Peterman finally broke the scoring drought for the Ephs and put a pair of points on the scoreboard with 16:46 on the clock.
A pair of Chessie Jackson free throws knotted the game at eighteen apiece with 7:49 to play in the first half before Williams charged ahead with an 11-2 run. With the Ephs leading by nine, Middlebury narrowed the lead to five points before the Ephs closed out the half with a 6-0 run to bring their first half lead to eleven, 35-24.
Williams slowly extended their lead in the second half. Middlebury would bring the Ephs’ lead back into single digits with 16:46 remaining in regulation, but the Ephs quickly quelled any thoughts of a comeback. Williams saw their largest lead of the night at twenty-six following a jumper by Whitney Livermore with two minutes to play. Livermore came off the bench to score nine points on 4-of-6 shooting.
“There was a real emphasis on team defense,” said Williams head coach Pat Manning. “We had overall solid defense and Niki (Savageau) did a great job setting the tone for us, but the key in the second half was our inside play. Chessie (Jackson) had some great hi-low passes to Dom (de la Torre) and Whitney (Livermore), and we just had great offensive execution.”
Lauren Sanchez led Middlebury with 11 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the charity stripe, while Ashley Barron added eight. Lani Young scored seven with a game-high 11 rebounds, while Kaitlyn Fallon netted seven with nine boards.
Taylor Shea, Jessica Harris and Jackson paced the Ephs offense with twelve points apiece. Shea grabbed 10 rebounds to record a double-double for the afternoon. Peterman chipped in seven points, while de la Torre contributed ten.
Williams will host Bates this Friday at 7:30 p.m.
