In the final match of the Morin Memorial Tournament, Williams (3-0, 0-0, NESCAC) defeated Stevenson (1-2, 0-0, MAC Commonwealth) 56-40 this afternoon in Chandler Gym.
The Mustangs started the game with a zone defense, but they were quickly punished by six points in the first two minutes of play at the hands of Arianna Gerig, Maddy Mandyck, and Mia Holtze. When Stevenson switched to man defense, the pace slowed down, but Williams was able to battle their way to an eight point lead with just two seconds to play. On the inbound, the Mustangs passed into Morgan Pennick, who dribbled into a half court shot and sunk it, shocking the crowd and bringing the Eph lead to five, 18-13.
The Ephs were undeterred, and in the second quarter they started strong, making extra passes and fighting for boards. Devin Biesbrock swished two threes in a row, beginning a 13-2 run that would go on for almost six minutes in which Stevenson's only points came from a tough reverse finish.
Williams' offense seemed to flow as the ball moved from player to player, culminating in easy buckets for Ryann Taylor and Kaleisha Towle, as well as Biesbrock. The Ephs kept Stevenson to just 22% on their field goal attempts, winning the quarter 21-9. One of the key differences in scoring was the Ephs' ability to sink three pointers, as they made a blazing 71% of their attempts from behind the arc.
Things got tough in the third quarter. The quarter ended with only twelve combined points scored on 15% shooting for both teams— seven for Stevenson and five for Williams. "We couldn't make a basket to save our lives," said head coach Pat Manning regarding the scoring drought. The problem wasn't shot selection either: "Some shots were a little forced but there were a lot of good shots that we usually make in the flow of our offense, and they weren't going in."
The bright side was the defensive effort, on which Manning said: "We could've let down, or we could have gotten frustrated, but we just kept playing tough." The Ephs had five blocks, all at the hands of Maddy Mandyck, who would end up tallying a 13 point, 16 rebound, 12 block triple double, with 6 assists to boot.
Spurred on by Mandyck's effort, the Ephs ended the scoring drought in the fourth quarter with four Ephs able to put up twelve points to the Mustangs' eleven, culminating in a final score of 56-40.
Remarking on Mandyck's triple double, coach Manning said: "She takes a lot of pride in her defense, but this was unbelievable… Maddy's always consistent, and she's been such a great leader this year. I'm really happy for her because she works so hard. She puts a lot of extra time in, and is such a great defensive player."
In her concluding comments, Manning noted the progress that the team has made so far. "There were glimpses out there where the ball movement was awesome and we finished, especially in the second quarter. It's a fun team to coach— they want to win, they want to play hard, and they want to have fun. They're hungry because we had a lot of really close losses last year that could've gone either way. Everyone came in very determined to get back on track."
The Ephs will play their first road game at 4 PM this Tuesday, at Springfield College.
Original source can be found here.
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