On the first day of the Morin Memorial Tournament, Williams (2-0, 0-0, NESCAC) defeated Albright (2-2, 0-0, MAC COMMONWEALTH) 76-69 at home in Chandler Gym.
Williams began the game with intensity. During the first possession of the game, Arianna Gerig stole the ball and made an outlet pass to Ryann Taylor, who finished through a foul, scoring one more from the stripe. Though the Lions' Mackenzie Dover was able to pressure the Ephs, scoring nine points and grabbing three rebounds in the first quarter, Williams played strong, physical defense and ended the quarter with a 24-16 lead.
Albright fought back in the second, going on a 10-5 run from 9:21 to 5:08, but the Ephs still had momentum on their side, and made layup after layup, scoring twelve of their next thirteen points in the paint.
The Lions' retaliation picked up in the third quarter as they changed their line of attack. "They went to the inside game, and we wanted to defend in a different way than we actually did. [There were] too many one-on-ones in the paint, and it's pretty easy to score when you're one-on-one." said the Ephs' head coach Pat Manning with regards to the shift.
When asked what led to the lag in defense, Manning noted the third quarter difficulties that the team has been working to eliminate: "We didn't come out with the same intensity. First half we kept the energy going and we were controlling the pace of the game— we pressured them a lot more. Third quarter we stopped doing that. Look at the difference in shooting percentage." From the second to third quarter, Williams' shooting percentage dropped from 64% to 29%.
With Williams only holding an eight point lead at the beginning of the fourth, the game was still up in the air. However, the team's starters did their best to cement the Ephs' lead, bringing the lead to eleven with 4:40 to play.
After an Albright timeout, the Lions seemed to have renewed drive, and began to chip away at the lead, scoring relentlessly in the paint, at the free throw line, and from the three point arc. With 1:49 to play and a four point lead, the Ephs called a full timeout. Though the Albright defense stifled Williams' offense post-timeout, the Lions were unable to capitalize on the other side and the game was soon decided by clutch layups from Mandyck and Gerig.
Coach Manning remarked on the close finish, saying "Albright is a good team, they fight until the end. They're athletic and they play hard. They came right after us." Despite the Lions' effort, Manning noted contributions from across the squad that allowed Williams to walk away with the win: "Our five starters were in double figures and Priscilla came off the bench at a really critical time. Momentum had shifted their way, but Priscilla became a presence in the paint and got three key rebounds."
Tomorrow, Williams will get a chance to build on tonight's performance as they face off against Stevenson University at 3PM in Chandler Gym.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up