Numbers clearly don’t always tell the story. On Friday night, Washington University’s Women’s basketball team played like the number two ranked team in the country while the University of Rochester (41-1, 3-1 UAA) played like the team that had lost three of its first four games and fallen out of the national rankings.

In a phenomenal upset, the Lady Bears handed the Lady Yellowjackets their first defeat of the season, blowing them out 57-36 at the Field House. With this win, the Bears (11-4, 3-1 UAA) have seemingly regained the form and confidence that has made the team a perennial UAA powerhouse.

The game seemed in doubt early on when standout senior Rebecca Parker received her second foul of the game with 15:21 remaining in the half. This greatly limited her playing time for the remainder of the half. Wash. U. faced another hurdle when fellow starter Sarah Schell received her second foul of the half with 9:08 remaining and did not play for the rest of the half.

Fortunately, the bench responded, scoring 12 of the Bear’s 27 first half points. “Our bench came out strong tonight,” said head coach Nancy Fahey. “They have finally started to gain some experience and it really shows.”

“This game was truly a team effort,” added senior guard Jill Brandt, who scored a game-high 13 points. “We have begun to gel as a team and really worked hard together tonight.”

The Red and Green took complete control of the game in the second half. The Bears limited the Yellowjackets to just 18.75 percent shooting from the field while not allowing a single Rochester field goal in the last five minutes of the game.

Defense was truly the story of Friday’s game, as 18 of Wash. U.’s points came off of forced turnovers. The Bears were also able to grab 50 rebounds, led by sophomore Jaimie McFarlin who had 12.

“We played very solid defense tonight and were able to keep our heads in the game for the entire 40 minutes,” said Fahey.

The Red and Green were ecstatic about their performance on Friday.

“We had a particularly fierce mentality the entire game and really took it to the league favorite,” said Parker. “We had no UAA respect going into the game and were able to earn some tonight.”

On Sunday, the Bears earned another solid victory, defeating Carnegie Mellon University (6-10, 0-5 UAA) 76-64 at the Field House. The Red and Green never fell behind in the entire 40 minutes of play.

Parker had an especially strong game, recording her seventh double-double of the season and thirteenth of her career with 18 points and 16 rebounds. With this performance, Parker also moved up to sixth on the all-time rebounding list with 597. Guard Leah Feola led the Tartans with a double-double of her own, recording 16 points and 12 rebounds.

After this stellar weekend, the Bears now stand in third place in the UAA and have moved themselves back into title contention.

The Bears return to action Friday night versus Brandeis University at the Field House. Game time is scheduled for 6 p.m.

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