After a 7-16 record last year (including an 0-9 conference record), the Wesleyan women’s basketball team looked towards improving and coming out strong in the early-season games this year. The team have achieved that so far, by opening the season with two early wins. They won their opener by a score of 69-61 over SUNY-Old Westbury, lost their next contest to SUNY-Geneseo by single digits (56-48), and finally rebounded in their third game against Hunter College, 64-51. Two wins in three games against tough competition is a positive start to Wesleyan’s season, and the team is clearly getting on the right track heading towards NESCAC competition later in the year.
For the first game of the season, Wesleyan traveled to Old Westbury, N.Y. to play SUNY-Old Westbury. They came away with the 69-61 win in a hotly contested game. Wesleyan went into the second half down by 11 points but managed an improbable comeback led by a trio of seniors: Eileen Gaffney, Sam LaCroce, and Emily Lippe. With five minutes to play, Lippe hit a three-pointer to give Wes is first lead of the second half. Old Westbury closed the gap, but finally, with just over two minutes left, LaCroce broke the tie with a lay-up that would put Wesleyan up for good. Each of the seniors was a double threat in her contributions: Lippe added six assists to her 13 points, LaCroce led the team with 24 points and added nine assists for good measure, while Gaffney took down a game-high 10 boards to go along with her nine points.
Wes would have liked to start a streak against SUNY-Geneseo, but unfortunately that would not be the case, as the team was unable to close out what was a close game, and lost 56-48.
Wesleyan played right with Geneseo throughout the first half and in a game that could have gone either way, Geneseo led 29-25 at halftime. Unfortunately, that was as close as the Cards would get, as Geneseo came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders and eventually closed out the game well. LaCroce led Wesleyan with 15 points and nine rebounds, and Lippe added three steals and four assists along with 11 points and five rebounds. Gaffney contributed eight points and eight rebounds in the effort.
Against Hunter, Wesleyan jumped out with a huge margin to start the game 17-2. After a torrid start like that, it was unrealistic to think that he Cards would lose the game, and thus they were able to cool down and play the entirety of the contest from the driver’s seat. At halftime, the score was 33-10. Despite a comeback attempt by Hunter in the second half, Wes held on to the gigantic 23-point lead they had amassed in the first half to hold on to their second win of the year. This is the third time in three years that the Cardinals have beaten Hunter by double digits, a streak they no doubt would like to extend. The women were led in scoring by LaCroce, who had 14 points.
With their next contest on Friday against non-conference opponent Maine-Presque Isle, the Cardinals look to build upon their strong showing against Hunter College and start rolling towards the conference contests with some momentum.