The women’s basketball team continued its hot start to the season with a blowout 94-41 win against St. Joseph (Conn.) on Tuesday, Dec. 2. With the win, Wes improved its record to 4-1.
The Cardinals completely dominated the game, but took a little while to get warmed up. After gaining the lead 11-7, the team took off—scoring on 18 of its 20 possessions in the next 11 minutes and building a 49-24 lead right before halftime.
The team hadn’t scored 94 points since 1992, when it beat Williams, 96-80. Tuesday, Wes fell only six points short of the school record of 100.
Lucy Sprung G’08 provided an inside scoring and rebounding presence. The 5’10” graduate student had 16 points and eight rebounds and played great post defense.
The game also showed that the Cardinals have a solid balance of experience and fresh talent: Meredith Lowe ’09 had 15 points and Eileen Gaffney ’12 had 14. Depth was on display as well, as 12 of the 13 Cardinals who played had at least one point and one rebound.
Team play, however, was not sacrificed for individual stat sheet stuffing. Wes scored 40 baskets and 28 of them were assisted, with 10 different players recording assists.
But one player stood out the most when it came to passing: McKinley Tennant ’11. The sophomore point guard played the most minutes for the Cardinals, and recoded a rare double-double with 11 points and 10 assists.
However, coach Kate Mullen was most pleased with Tennant’s zero turnovers, as she became the first Cardinal since Nora Bowman ’05 in 2001 to have a double figure in the assist column.
Yet after the game, Tennant was humble and gracious when asked about her wonderful performance. She deflected praise from herself, like all great point guards do.
“We have a great team and everyone got to contribute to our win against St. Joe’s,” she said. “Our biggest thing that we have been working on this year is improving our team defense, which really showed.”
She also commended the team’s experienced leaders.
“Our team is very lucky to have our two captains, Lucy Sprung and Meredith Lowe, who show great leadership on and off the court,” Tennant said.
Wesleyan was incredibly efficient, and the 28 assists set up easy baskets. The team shot an incredible 51.9 percent from the field over the course of the game, while the defense held the Blue Jays to 20.4 percent shooting. The Cardinals also cleaned up on the glass, grabbing more than twice as many rebounds as St. Joe’s, as they won the board battle 54-24.
Yesterday, however, the team lost to WPI, 62-65, in Worcester, Mass.
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