Women’s Basketball Earns Tournament Bid, Road Quarterfinal Set at Bowdoin

Despite dropping two games to conference foes this past weekend on the road, the Middlebury women’s basketball team earned the opportunity to play in the NESCAC postseason tournament for the 10th time in school history. The seventh-seeded Panthers will travel to Brunswick this Saturday, Feb. 21 to lock horns with second-seeded Bowdoin, who bested Middlebury 53-43 earlier this month.

Head Coach KJ Krasco secured a NESCAC tournament berth in her first year at the program’s helm, but would have liked to end the regular season on a better note.

“We wanted to try our best to put together a solid 40 minute game on Friday and Saturday,” Krasco said. “Unfortunately we didn’t play as well as we would have liked, which resulted in two losses.”

Middlebury began the weekend with a contest at Trinity on Friday, Feb. 8 in which the Panthers made a late push but were unable to overcome the nine-point halftime deficit.

Middlebury kept the contest close for the game’s first seven-plus minutes, but a 9-0 Bantam run left the Panthers down by eight. Middlebury tried to claw back but could not bring the deficit below four points, and entered halftime trailing 29-20.

Sabrina Weeks ’18 and Elizabeth Knox ’17 opened the second half with a pair of layups to make it a five-point game. Later in the period, another Weeks layup closed the gap to three. The game went back and forth with Trinity stretching the lead out to eight, and Knox again shrinking it to three.

With just 1:48 left in the game, Krystina Reynolds ’17 sunk a layup, decreasing the Panther point deficit to just two points. Unfortunately, Trinity hit a three-pointer seconds later, and made 7-8 free throws down the stretch to clinch a 62-54 victory.

Knox paced the offensive attack for the Panthers, scoring 19 points with a 8-14 shooting ratio, and winning eight rebounds. Further scoring contributions came from Alexis Coolidge ’15 who netted nine points, and Weeks who scored eight.

The Panthers returned to action at 11th-ranked Amherst on Sunday, Feb. 15 for their final regular season NESCAC game. Amherst entered the game with 20-2 overall and 8-1 in-conference records, and were able to dispatch of the Panthers 61-33. The Lord Jeffs have now won 109 straight games at home in LeFrak Gymnasium.

Weeks opened the scoring in the game with a layup on the Panthers’ second possession. Neither team was able to separate itself in the first half, and at one point there was a five minute stretch where only one basket was scored by either side. Knox made a layup with 30 seconds remaining in the half to make it a 25-19 game.

“In the first half,” Crews said, “we were able to compete with a top 25 team, despite not playing our best basketball. That first half was another example of how we can compete with any team in the NESCAC when we are mentally focused and communicating.”

Amherst put the pedal to the medal in the second half, which opened with a 13-5 Lord Jeffs’ run. Crews hit a three-pointer to bring Middlebury within 11, but Amherst soon exploded on a 17-point run to blow the game open.

Overall, the Panthers struggled against the NESCAC’s second-ranked defense, shooting 22 percent (13-59) from the floor. Sarah Kaufman ’18 was the only Panther to record double figures, tallying 11 points and adding six rebounds. Coolidge snagged six boards as well for Middlebury.

“I thought we competed in both games [this weekend],” Krasco said, “we were able to play well for portions of both games, but not consistently enough throughout the entire game.”

The Panthers will have their work cut out for them when they meet 21-3 (9-1) Bowdoin this coming Saturday, Feb. 21

“Our goal is to … become a mentally tougher team this week in practice to prepare for our opponent this weekend,” Krasco said. “We have to execute on both ends of the floor and play better in order to win.”