Wesleyan women’s hoops showed improved fight on their road trip this weekend, but second-half woes left the Cardinals still searching for their first NESCAC victory. Friday’s trip to Maine was competitive from the get-go, and a buzzer-beater by McKinley Tennant ’11 sent the Cards into the locker room at halftime with a 28-27 lead.
Bates came out in the second half with increased intensity, however, and a quick 13-2 run put the Cardinals on their heels. As Wesleyan continued to struggle to find the shooting touch, the Bobcats’ lead continued to swell and ultimately took the contest by a final score of 69-49. There were plenty of culprits in the Cardinals’ second half collapse, but none were more crippling than their 20 turnovers. Wesleyan also lost the battle on the boards 29-23, and shot just 28.1 percent from the floor in the second half. Eileen Gaffney ’12 led the way for the Cards with 16 points and 9 rebounds.
On Saturday, the Cardinals gave Tufts all they could handle for 35 minutes, but fell victim to a late Jumbo flurry to lose 57-47. The first half was yet another cagey affair, with neither team leading by more than six points throughout the game. Hot shooting from Erin Gold ’11, along with tough interior play from Gaffney and Kendra Harris ’13 brought the Cards back from an early 11-5 deficit, and at halftime the score stood at 22-20 Jumbos.
The second period was more of the same in the early going, with physical play and high defensive pressure from both sides yielding very little between the two teams. Down the stretch, however, Tufts was just too good from behind the arc. Back-to-back three-pointers with less than three minutes to go stretched the lead to ten, and Wesleyan simply did not have enough time to mount a response. Gold led the charge with 17 points and three blocked shots, while Harris had 12 points, and Gaffney contributed 8 points and 11 boards. In the end, a 51-30 rebounding deficit was just too much for the Cardinals to overcome, meaning their hopes for a first conference victory will have to shift to their matchup with Connecticut College this coming weekend.
Leave a Reply