Sabrina DelBello dribbles down the court in a Feb. 17 conference matchup. (Photo by Frank Jiang)

Following an impressive regular season, the Washington University Women’s Basketball team’s season was cut short in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament. In their first-ever matchup against Trine University Friday, March 3 in Dubuque, Iowa, the Bears came up 10 points short. Although the contest was back and forth, the Thunder, who entered the tournament ranked No. 14 in the country, pulled away in the fourth quarter for a final score of 79-69.

Trine started the game off on a hot streak, scoring the first six points of the game and jumping out to a 21-12 lead in the opening period. The trend continued into the second quarter with the Thunder extending the gap to 28-15 four minutes in. The Bears, however, returned the favor, scoring seven in a row. Following a tough start, WashU entered the halftime intermission down by just seven points.

The second half was a much higher-scoring affair, with both teams battling it out in a more evenly contested manner. After a Trine layup to start the half, two three- pointers by WashU senior guard, Naomi Jackson, narrowed the deficit to three points two minutes into the third quarter. The Bears took their first lead of the game six minutes later after four straight points by senior forward Maya Arnott made the score 46-44. When challenged, Trine stepped up their game, going on a 10-4 run to regain a 54-50 lead going into the final quarter.

The squads exchanged scores throughout the first five minutes of the fourth before the Thunder scored four straight points to take a 63-55 lead. A layup and free throw by junior guard Jessica Brooks and a three from sophomore guard Sabrina DelBello brought the Bears within two points, but the Thunder began to pull away with three minutes left. A Jackson three-pointer reduced the WashU deficit to 68-64 with 1:40 left on the clock, but six straight free throws for Trine expanded their lead to 10 with just over 30 seconds remaining. The Bears hit a few more shots as the clock wound down, but Trine’s ability to hit free throws kept the game out of reach and saw them to finish the contest with a 79-69 victory.

The scoring effort for the Bears was led by three double-digit tallies. Arnott, who was named to the all-UAA team, had team highs with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Brooks, WashU’s other first-team honoree, led the team with five assists in addition to her 11 points. Jackson shot 4-10 from beyond the three-point arc and notched 12 points in the loss.

Although the Bears were only outrebounded by one, their opponent’s ability to score points on the low blocks proved to be a key difference maker. Trine’s 36 points in the paint, which was 16 more than WashU had, made up a large portion of their points down the stretch and helped them emerge victorious.

The Bears’ 17 wins were the most since the 2018-19 season, and their 10-4 conference record landed them tied for second in the UAA, arguably the most talented conference in Division III basketball. The Bears boasted streaks of three and five straight wins in conference play, sweeping their series against Emory, Rochester, Brandeis, and Carnegie Mellon. In addition, the side pulled out top-10 wins against conference rivals New York University and the University of Chicago.