ITHACA, N.Y. - Despite a second half rally that brought them to within one, the Mount Saint Mary College women's basketball team fell to Williams College, 62-56, in the opening round of the NCAA Division III women's basketball tournament. The Knights finish the season at 22-6.
Mount Saint Mary trailed by twelve at the half and was spared a bigger deficit when a three-pointer at the buzzer was taken off the board because of instant replay. Out of the gates in the second half, Williams pushed the lead to fourteen with a triple from junior Chessie Jackson (Goleta, Calif.) and a lay-up by freshman Claire Baecher (Brunswick, Maine).
From there, the Knights ripped off the next eight points, and a lay-up by freshman
Kate Hartnett (Floral Park, N.Y.) at the 12:46 mark made the score, 45-39. Williams freshman Grace Rehnquist (Sharon, Mass.) answered with a three to push the lead to nine, and the Ephs still led 50-41 as the clock ticked under ten minutes.
Senior
Shannon Sangster (Syracuse, N.Y.) kicked off the final push to get back in the game with a lay-up at the 8:49 mark. Sophomore
Amanda Horvers (Kingston, N.Y.) followed with back-to-back buckets to make it 50-47 with 6:18 remaining.
Out of a Williams time-out, junior
Jess Tice (Altamont, N.Y.) banked home a lay-up while getting fouled at the 4:10 mark. Unfortunately, the junior wasn’t able to complete the three-point play and the Ephs still led by one, 50-49.
After a scoreless drought of more than six minutes, caused mainly by the increased defensive pressure of the Mount, Baecher broke through with a lay-up to make it 52-49 with 3:48 remaining. Sophomore Jill Greenberg (Westwood, Mass.) followed with a three-point play on the ensuing possession to give the Ephs a comfortable six-point cushion.
The Knights would get back to within four on several occasions during the final three minutes, but turnovers proved to be too costly down the stretch. Williams made 6-of-8 free throws in the final minute and left the floor with a 62-56 victory.
Tice led Mount Saint Mary with 13 points and also grabbed 8 rebounds. Sangster shot 6-for-9 from the floor and tallied 12 points to go along with 9 boards. Senior Chrissy Zrowka (Brick, N.J.) racked up 12 points, 5 steals, and 4 rebounds.
For the Ephs, Greenberg led the way with 16 points on 7-of-16 shooting. Freshman Jennie Harding (Santa Monica, Calif.) totaled 13 points and 8 rebounds, while Jackson put up 12 points and 9 boards. Junior Taylor Shea (Allendale, N.J.) scored 8 points and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds.
Williams struggled in the face of the defensive pressure from the Knights and shot just 34.4-percent from the field. The Ephs were 6-of-22 (27.3-percent) from three. Mount Saint Mary shot 40.7-percent from the field, but committed 23 turnovers. The teams were about even on the glass (43-41), but Williams came away with timely offensive boards and finished with 16 of them for the game.
The Ephs will play the winner of the other first round game between Ithaca College and DeSales University.