Chargers bolt by the Panthers at Pepin

Author: James Kerrigan

The women's basketball team dropped two of three games to start 2008, but the squad is anything but worried.

After suffering a loss to Eastern Connecticut State on Jan. 3, the Panthers bounced back with an impressive 81-78 OT victory over Skidmore. Middlebury ran its lead up to as many as 12 in the second half, but the Thoroughbreds fought back with a 13-3 run. The game stayed close throughout the remainder of regulation - so close that Skidmore needed a game-tying field goal with just two seconds left to send the game into overtime.

"Usually a game goes into overtime because neither team is playing well," said Coach Noreen Pecsok, who is in the midst of her 10th season as women's basketball coach, "but both teams were playing well and hitting big shots."

Middlebury won the extra period with great free-throw-shooting - the Panthers hit six of their final seven in the last 1:38 to secure the narrow victory. They also hit a season-high 12 three-pointers on the afternoon.

"We're a really strong team because we are so balanced," said Pecsok. "Our commitment is about all of us. If someone has a bad night, someone else steps us." Against Skidmore, that came from Emily Johnson '09, who finished with a team-high 23 points. Her performance against Skidmore, and her 26 points two days earlier against Eastern Connecticut State was more than enough to earn her NESCAC Player of the Week honors.

Middlebury returned home to take on Colby-Sawyer on Jan. 8. So far this season, when the Chargers matched up against other NESCAC teams, they lost by an average margin of 29 points. That trend ended in Middlebury. Despite holding an 18-9 lead in the series history, the Panthers found themselves down 18-9 early on in the first half.

Middlebury chipped away at the lead in the second half. Johnson started three consecutive Middlebury possessions with a defensive rebound which led to three straight Panther baskets, including Johnson's three-pointer which brought them within three points of the lead 30-27. But that is as close as they would get, as a tough shooting night prevented them from getting ahead. Colby-Sawyer shot 41 percent from the field, well ahead of Middlebury's 24 percent. This gap was the difference maker in the 61-48 loss for the Panthers, their third of the season.

Pecsok noted that the squad is hardly worried about the future. "The loss will force us to evaluate things," she said. "We'll be better off in the long run with tonight's result."

Middlebury hits the road this weekend for contests against Southern Vermont and Rensselaer before finishing off the month with five consecutive games against tough NESCAC foes, including Colby and Bowdoin at home on Jan. 18 and 19.