Scott BresslerWashington University women’s basketball and the University of Rochester needed overtime for the second time in two weeks. Unlike last weekend in Rochester, Washington University pulled out a 63-61 victory. The Bears and Yellowjackets are now tied atop the UAA with a 7-2 record in UAA play.
With four seconds left in overtime, sophomore Janice Evans hit a layup to tie the score at 61. Marlena Fisher then threw the Rochester inbound pass into the Wash. U. bench, which gave the Lady Bears 3.8 seconds, time for one final shot. The first inbound play resulted in a Wash. U. timeout, but the second play worked perfectly. Freshman Alex Hoover received the ball at the top of the key in an isolation play. She drove to the hoop and hit a layup with under one second left, giving Wash. U. the win.
“I was going to come off the screen, and I had three seconds to dribble, draw a foul, kick out, basically do anything I wanted with three seconds left. I got the ball, and I drove to the basket. I knew I was either going draw the foul or make the shot, and that’s what I did,” stated Hoover.
Evans led the team with 12 points, all in the second half and overtime. Hoover dropped 10, Jill Brandt scored nine and Shanna-Lei Dacanay, Zo‰ Unruh, Kelsey Robb and Halsey Ward each scored seven.
The Lady Bears held a comfortable lead in the first half on 12-33 shooting, including 5-9 shooting from behind the arc. However, the Red and Green’s 29-22 lead evaporated in the second half behind poor outside shooting and a reinvigorated Rochester offense and defense. Rochester made eight more shots than Wash. U. in the second half and hit a layup with eight seconds remaining in regulation to bring the game to overtime.
“Early in the game, we were hitting every outside shot, so we kind of started relying on that. Toward the end of the half, we started missing our shots, and so at halftime, our coach was like ‘we need to get inside.’ She started mixing up inside-outside game,” said Hoover.
“They’re [Rochester], a great defensive team. They really shut us down and really cramped our offense. I’m just really proud that we were able to come back,” stated Head Coach Nancy Fahey.
On Feb. 1, Rochester defeated Wash. U. 58-55 in overtime, but the Bears were able to hit the final shot on Sunday. When asked what the Lady Bears did differently this week, Fahey stated, “We scored two more points than they did.”
The Rochester win completed a perfect weekend for the Red and Green, which also defeated Carnegie Mellon 64-37 on Friday. Wash. U. took a 42-19 lead into halftime and finished the game with a 49.1 shooting percentage. After only defeating the Tartans by seven points on Feb. 3, the Bears shot the ball significantly better en route to a blowout win.
“We were on the fourth game of the road trip, and our legs were a little drawn. We’re home now. We got our legs bag. I think we shot the ball better at home,” said Fahey.
Over this past weekend, Wash. U. welcomed alumni from both the men’s and women’s basketball teams who watched their former teams play.
“The game is much faster. The rules have changed significantly,” said Jacqueline Schapp, ’47. When Schapp was playing, there were six Bears on the court with three forwards covering one half and three guards on the other. Players could only dribble twice before passing, and a good game might have gone to 30 points.
Sunday was also Youth Day at Wash. U., and J.J. Jumper, the official mascot of the NCAA was on hand to distribute T-shirts and play games with the children in attendance. In addition, both the men and women basketball players signed autographs after their games.
The Bears (15-5, 7-2 UAA) continue UAA play with a Feb. 15 contest against Case Western Reserve University and a Feb. 17 game against Emory University. Students at Emory recently declared war on Washington University through a Feb. 4 editorial in Emory’s student paper The Emory Wheel.
Wash. U. looks to improve to 2-0 against both teams and will look to hold a tie or capture an outright lead in the UAA standings.
“Right now, Emory and Case are the teams that are beating all of the big dogs. It will show how good we are,” added Evans.
-With additional reporting by Johann Qua Hiansen.