Women’s basketball falls short at Oberlin
By Aleta Cox
Although the Earlham College women’s basketball team held several leads throughout the game, it could not defeat rival Oberlin College and eventually lost in another close game, 51-57, on Saturday, Jan. 30. The Quakers now drop to 2-17 in overall season play and 1-9 in conference play, while Oberlin moves to 4-15 in their season play and 3-7 in the conference.
The Quakers opened the game with a small lead of 7-5, yet the Oberlin Yeowomen continued battling with the Quakers, always responding with their own scoring runs to move ahead. The Quakers’ biggest lead of the game was 34-22, capped off when freshman guard Jessica Wooden scored with only 18:35 left to play. The Yeowomen then responded with a 19-4 run that featured four triple-hits from Oberlin freshman Kelly Warlich, which put the Yeowomen on top 41-38 at the 13:05 mark.
Freshman guard Michelle Miranda said, “Our problem is that we never put a total 40 minutes together. Our team usually capitalizes on the second half of the game every time and plays really well that half, but we have to focus also on the first half of the game in order to win. We also need to stop the scoring rallies; we can’t let teams get a 19 point run on us.”
The lady Quakers battled to come back in their last lead of the game, with freshman center/forward Whitney Sparkman scoring at the 11:38 mark to make the score 43-41. This effort would be the Quakers’ last lead of the game, as Oberlin then hit a three-pointer to reclaim the lead. The Quaker women would only come within one point of the Yeowomen after that, with sophomore guard Kate Franks scoring at 2:18 to make the score 52-51.
When looking at the statistics, the key to Oberlin’s win was their higher shooting percentage in the second half of the game. Although the Quaker women shot 37 and 32.4 percent in the first and second halves respectively, the Yeowomen would improve on their first half percentage of 26.5 to come out in the second half with a whopping 56.5 shooting percentage.
For the lady Quakers, Sparkman led the team in scoring with 14 points, including two rebounds, one block and one steal. Sophomore guard Nikki Darrett was second to Sparkman in total points with 13. Darrett also contributed 12 rebounds, seven assists and four steals. Wooden added nine points, four rebounds, one block and two steals. Franks and Miranda added seven points each for the Quaker women in their battle against Oberlin.
This marks the second straight game the Quakers have lost by less than a ten-point margin, as they competed with Wittenberg last Wednesday in a match that ended with the Quaker women losing a close 61-66.
“As a team overall, I feel like we are moving forward. We have had some successes and I know that if we can continue to play as a team, I can see only more success and wins for us in the future,” said Darrett.
The Quakers travel to Meadville, Pa. this weekend to take on Allegheny College Gators (7-11, 4-5). Last year, the Quakers were victorious against the Gators when they beat them 75-69 on Jan. 8, 2009.
Franks reflected on the team’s win last year and their chances against the Gators tonight: “When we won the last game against Alleghany, we were ecstatic, we felt like we played together as a team and brought everyone together on the same level. Knowing that we have the ability to continue to play with that team skill and intensity is giving us confidence going into this coming weekend.”
She added, “The main focus we will need going to Allegheny this weekend will be team effort and communication along with the confidence we have gained over the first half of the season.”
The women hope to capture another win tonight when the game commences at 6 p.m. Tomorrow the team travels to Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio to face the Terriers (3-15, 2-7) at 2 p.m.
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