file photoLast Sunday’s match up with New York University at the Field House, a 53-44 Bears victory, was still fresh in the Washington University players’ minds when they headed east to New York City on Thursday morning.
Thanks to some impressive shooting by Laura Crowley, the Bears were twice victorious over the weekend, with wins on the home courts of fellow University Athletic Association conference teams NYU (14-6, 4-5 UAA) and Brandeis University (11-8, 4-5 UAA).
NYU started out the Friday game with the same plan of attack as the week before, a signature slow-down style of offense. However, the Violets’ strategy was not successful the second time around either, and in the end WU prevailed with a 57-42 victory.
WU came out strong offensively, scoring 16 of 17 points in the paint to start the game. Then it became a battle of runs. The Bears went on a 10-0 run to put their commanding 27-9 lead to 18 points. But it was the Violets who ended the first half with a 5-0 run of their own to cut the margin to 27-14 at halftime.
This momentum continued in the opening minutes of the second half as NYU scored another unanswered five points to make it 27-19. Then the Bears turned up the defense and began connecting on offense. WU scored 17 unanswered points to take a 44-19 lead with eleven minutes to play. The Violets kept battling back and got as close as 53-40, but with only two minutes remaining, the WU defense held firm and time expired.
As guard Leslie Berger said, “We were prepared for their slow offense. We were glad they did it because we had made some adjustments since Sunday’s game and used it to our advantage.”
“Our rebounding was crucial,” Berger said. “Everyone boxed out, and they didn’t get many second-chance shots.”
WU’s rebounding domination was evident in the statistics. WU held the advantage in several key areas that enabled the Bears to defeat NYU for a second time in back to back games, including points scored in the paint (34-16), second chance points (15-2), and bench points (18-5). In addition, the Bears forced the Violets into committing 22 turnovers that were then converted into 31 WU points.
With seven rebounds and nine points, Jen Rudis became only the 11th player in school history to accumulate at least 600 points and 500 rebounds. Manning led WU scorers with 12 points and four steals. Hallie Hutchens added 11 points and Lesley Hawley and Diana Hill chipped in with eight each.
When visiting the Violets, WU is usually met by a hostile NYU crowd. Kelly Manning said, “I think our fans actually outnumbered theirs… but I have to say, they had a pretty sweet pep band!”
The Bears then hit the road and traveled to Waltham, Massachusetts to take on Brandeis Sunday afternoon. Both teams battled hard in the first half and WU found themselves experiencing a little d‚j… vu as Brandeis trailed by only three points at halftime, 42-39, the same halftime score in last week’s match-up. But the Bears pulled away early in the second half-preserving their perfect season.
With about 14 minutes to play, WU took a substantial 56-44 lead and never allowed the Judges to come within single digits for the remainder of the game. In the resounding 91-63 victory, the Bears connected on 13 three-pointers (a new team record); much in part to the performance of Laura Crowley, who scored a season-high 21 points on seven three-pointers. In the offensive team effort, the Bears’ bench collectively outscored the Judges’ bench by a 38-point margin, 45-7. Individually Manning scored 15 points, Hutchens added 14 and Terri Lakowski chipped in with 10.
Not only did WU improve to 29-1 all-time against Brandeis, but they also continued many of their streaks: 51 consecutive regular-season wins, 29 straight UAA conference victories, and not to mention, this win marked the Bears’ sixth consecutive 20-win season, fourth 20-0 start in the last five seasons, and career win number 397 for head coach Nancy Fahey.
Fahey and company will get the opportunity to add to those totals and preserve their undefeated season this weekend when the Bears host Emory University on Friday, Feb. 14 and Case Western Reserve University on Sunday, Feb. 16 at the Field House.