The Dickinson Women’s Basketball team continued their best start to a season since 2009-10 with a 67-53 victory at McDaniel on Thursday, Nov. 29. The victory was the Red Devils’ first Centennial Conference win of the season and improved their record to 5-1. The team followed this up with a tough 72-65 loss to Haverford on Saturday, Dec. 1.
History did not favor the Devils entering Thursday’s match up with McDaniel, as Dickinson had dropped eight of its last nine to the Green Terror, including a 60-54 heartbreaker the previous season. It appeared that things would go the same route this year in the early stages of the game, as McDaniel rushed to a 15-8 late at the 12-minute mark, forcing Coach Henry to take a timeout. The stoppage worked perfectly for the Red Devils who roared back with a 16-6 run of their own before heading into the break, clinging to a 30-29 lead. After letting many halftime leads get away from them last season, the Devils refused to suffer a similar fate in this game. Led by senior Bridget Borgese ’13, the Devils opened up an eight point lead with a 14-7 run to start off the second half. Just when it appeared McDaniel might mount a run of their own, Sarah Phillips ’15 hit a huge three-pointer to stop any chance of a comeback by the Green Terror. As the game entered the closing minutes, McDaniel began to foul to try and stop the clock and extend the game. Dickinson made sure the strategy would not pay off, sealing the 14-point victory from the free throw line. Dana Walsh ’13 commented, “Last week was a big week for us; McDaniel was a very physical game. We showed great effort and composure, and we came out with the win.” Belma Mekic ’13 finished the game with 18 points and 16 rebounds to record her second double-double of the year. Borgese added 10 points and seven rebounds along with three assists. Rachel Sisco’16 managed the game perfectly from the point scoring six points, grabbing five boards and dishing out three assists.
On Saturday December 1st the Red Devils hit the road once again to travel to Haverford College to take on the ‘Fords. Once again Dickinson started slowly, though this time they were unable to recover, falling 72-65 despite a strong second half. Haverford exploded out of the gate, taking an 11-2 lead just five minutes into the game. The Red Devils fought back to make it 18-15 but were unable to close the gap any further as Haverford pulled away to take a 37-25 lead into the break. Dickinson refused to go away, however, as Phillips knocked down a three-pointer to spark a 7-1 run by the Devils who cut the lead to six with just over 10 minutes remaining. The ‘Fords would respond with a run of their own, setting off a pattern as the Devils would keep trying to climb back in the game but would never be able to get within more than six points. Fantastic free throw shooting by Haverford helped keep the Red Devils at bay in the final stages of the game.
“Haverford is a very good team,” Walsh commented. “We went in Saturday prepared for a great matchup, but unfortunately didn’t execute as well as we hoped to and came up short.” Borgese scored 19 points on the day to go with five rebounds. Phillips hit four three pointers scoring 13 points on the day and added five boards in the loss.
The loss drops Dickinson to 5-2 overall and 1-2 in the conference. The Devils return home on Saturday, Dec. 8, for a crucial 4:00 p.m. tipoff against Ursinus. “We are looking forward to coming prepared and finishing out the semester with two big wins in a row, thus moving us one step closer to our end of season goals,” Walsh concluded. The Red Devils hope to close out the semester strong, as they look to gain some ground in the early stages of Centennial Conference play after falling off the pace of the leaders.