Women’s basketball kept rolling this past weekend, inviting Williams back to Middletown for its second beat-down in as many games. Despite the Ephs’ best efforts to fill The Silloway Gymnasium with as many obnoxious purple-clad parents as possible, the Cardinals had no problem dismantling them 68-49.
“We owed them for last year,” said guard Ali Fourney ’09, who had 11 points and four assists in the first-round NESCAC tournament game.
Still playing with a chip on their shoulders against the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year, the Cards opened up with the first eight points of a physical game in which the referees took the “let ’em play” approach.
Williams rallied midway through the first half to shorten its lead to three points, but that margin was as close as the Ephs would get as Wesleyan went on a 7-2 run to pull away, eventually ending up 31-23 at the half. The Cardinals did not miss in the second half, shooting an impressive 50 percent from the field while also keeping the clamps on the Williams offense.
Despite the increasingly lopsided score, neither team let up the intensity until 1:13 remained in the game, when Wesleyan Head Coach Kate Mullen pulled her starters to honor the Cardinal seniors in their final career home game. By that time, five Wesleyan players had accumulated three or more personal fouls. The Cards closed out the game 68-49, a result nearly identical to that of their 65-47 win over the Ephs eight days earlier.
With the first-round game behind them, the Cards head to Amherst this Saturday for a semi-final game against Tufts. Ranked 15th in the nation, the 21-2 Tufts squad will prove to be a formidable obstacle to Wesleyan’s NESCAC championship hopes. However, the Cards are confident and playing well.
“They’re a tough team, but beatable,” Fourney said. “We know what we have to do to beat them.”
All year, Wesleyan has focused on achieving balanced offensive and defensive efforts, and this is exactly what it has shown in its last two games. The Cards beat Williams with significant contributions from all five starters, led by Lucy Sprung ’09, who had 18 points and 12 rebounds.
Wesleyan will need the same type of team performance against Tufts, plus something extra. The Cards were “out-bigged” in a loss on Feb. 2 to the Jumbos and are working this week to take away Tufts’ powerful inside game.
“We’re working on playing them tougher, and we’re also working on some different defenses,” Fourney said. “But we’re not going to use [their size] as an excuse.”
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