Women’s basketball bounces back from a four-game losing streak

The Middlebury College Women’s basketball team ended a four-game losing streak on Monday, defeating the Albany College of Pharmacy 74-64 at Pepin Arena. The win improved the Panthers’ record to 13-7 on the season, but they remain a mere 2-5 in NESCAC play.

The win helped Middlebury bounce back from a tough weekend of conference play, in which they lost consecutive road games to Colby and Bowdoin by at least 20 points.  On Friday the Panthers traveled to Colby, where they faced a Mules team with a decided size advantage.

Trailing 40-28 at halftime, Middlebury saw the Colby lead balloon and were never able to get back in the game, falling by an eventual score of 81-60. Colby was nearly unstoppable from the field, shooting 57 percent on the game overall and 60 percent from behind the three-point line. Scarlett Kirk ’14 led the Panthers with 13 points in the game, and Stephany Surrette ’12 and Tracy Borsinger ’13 both added 10 points for Middlebury.

The Panthers continued their tour of Maine the next day with a game at Bowdoin. In a game that was never close, Middlebury fell by 33 points to a Polar Bears team that they have not beaten since the 1998-99 season.
As they had against Colby, Middlebury had a hard time stopping Bowdoin on the defensive end, allowing the Polar Bears to shoot 56 percent from the field. Conversely, the Panthers were only able to manage a 34 percent field goal percentage, and only hit one of the 13 three-point baskets they attempted on the day. Middlebury trailed by 27 points at halftime and never recovered, falling behind by 35 at one point in the second half and losing by a final score of 93-60.

The loss was the Panthers’ worst on the season so far. For the second consecutive day, Kirk paced Middlebury in the points column, scoring 15. Co-captain Lauren Sanchez ’11 added 12 points in the loss.

The Panthers were finally able to stop the slide on Monday, when they defeated the Albany College of Pharmacy by a score of 74-64. The Panthers were able to create a 19 point lead early in the second half and never looked back on their way to their 13th victory of the season. Borsinger scored a career high 19 points in the win, and Surrette also placed in double-figures with 13 points.

The Panthers remain confident that they are well-prepared to be a factor in the NESCAC playoffs. “We’ve faced some very talented NESCAC teams,” said Sanchez. “Going forward, we’re going to make sure we play Middlebury basketball for all 40 minutes of our games.”

Middlebury will close out their season with three straight NESCAC games which will have huge implications on their seeding for the NESCAC tournament in two weeks.

This weekend the Panthers will take on top-ranked Amherst and then play Trinity in a Senior Night match-up before facing Hamilton in a make-up game at Pepin Arena in their regular-season finale. The Panthers’ recent struggles are in direct contrast to the way they started the season, which had been their best start in years. With a strong finish, Middlebury can still put themselves in a good position to make a deep run into the conference tournament.