For the past six seasons, the main defensive objective for the Washington University women’s basketball team has been simple: hold the opposing team to under 60 points. Since 1997, the Bears have posted an impressive 137-game winning streak when meeting this goal.

With just under four minutes remaining in the Bears’ recent game against fourth-ranked Rochester, Coach Nancy Fahey’s squad looked primed to continue the streak. With her second three-pointer of the game, senior guard Lesley Hawley put the Bears up 48-42.

However, Rochester’s Erika Smith nailed two three-pointers to level the game at 54-54 with 48 seconds left to play. With at least one more possession left, the Bears put the ball in sophomore guard Kelly Manning’s hands with 24 seconds remaining. When Manning’s shot fell short, Rochester had one last chance to pull off an exciting victory. Giving the ball to Kelly Wescott, Rochester watched as Wescott drove through the lane and sunk a game-winning lay-up with a mere two seconds left on the clock.

Although the Bears fell short at the end, Fahey should be fairly happy with her team’s hard-fought effort. In a hotly contested game that contained four ties and three lead changes in the last nine minutes, her team did not back down from a Rochester team that boasted a higher national rank.

One particularly notable performance for the Bears against Rochester was that of Hawley. Finishing with 18 points (7-14 FG), six rebounds and three assists, Hawley was all over the place as she played almost the entire game.

Junior Terri Lakowski also turned in an impressive performance coming off the bench, posting 10 points (4-5 FG) and 7 rebounds in 29 minutes of playing time. Lakowski has been a largely unnoticed sparkplug for the Bears this season, averaging 4.7 points and 4.0 rebounds in only 11.3 minutes per game.

The loss for the Bears was their second in three games dropping their overall record to 14-3 (4-2 UAA). Fortunately, the Bears matched up against University Athletic Association (UAA) doormat Carnegie Mellon, who held a dismal 0-6 conference mark before meeting Fahey’s squad on Sunday.

The Bears looked to be well on their way to boosting their conference record to 5-2 against Carnegie Mellon at halftime of Sunday’s game, taking a 42-16 lead into the locker room after an explosive half on their offensive end.

Fahey’s team would eventually roll to a 66-30 victory behind another solid performance from Hawley. Putting up 17 points (7-11 FG), including 13 in the second half, Hawley also recorded two assists and a rebound. Sophomore forward Danielle Beehler was also a major contributor, pulling down ten rebounds.

After going 1-1 this past weekend, the Bears will do it all over again next weekend at home when they take on the same two teams. While the Carnegie Mellon game is definitely the lesser of the team’s worries, Coach Fahey must develop a fresh game-plan if the Bears expect to avenge their loss to Rochester.

Popularity: 1% [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2004 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.