COLLEGE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL FINAL SCORE
NESCAC Tournament First Round
Williams 73 Tufts 52
At Medford
Saturday, February 21, 2004
MEDFORD – Visiting Williams College advanced to the semi-finals of the NESCAC women's basketball tournament with an impressive 73-52 victory at Tufts University in a first-round game on Saturday afternoon at Cousens Gymnasium. Ephs freshman Maggie Miller (Wellesley, MA) was game-high scorer with 20 points.
Williams, the fifth seed, (19-6) now heads to Bowdoin College for the semi-finals next Saturday (Feb. 28). The Ephs will play the Polar Bears. Fourth-seed Tufts finished its season at 18-6. The game was a major contrast to a week ago (Feb. 14) when the Jumbos beat the Ephs, 59-37, in Williamstown to clinch a home berth in the tournament.
Tufts had an 11-2 lead in the opening minutes, but then didn't score for five minutes. Williams managed to take a 12-11 edge on a lay-up by freshman Meghan Stetson (Oneonta, NY) at 11:48. The Ephs finished the half strong, out-scoring the Jumbos 12-4 in the last six minutes to lead by 10, 36-26, at the break. Sophomore guard Colleen Hession (Northampton, MA) had six points during the spurt, and Miller led the Ephs with 12 at the break. Sophomore guard Jessica Powers (Massapequa, NY) had 16 of the Jumbos' 26 points at the half.
Williams maintained a double-digit margin over the first 10 minutes of the second half. Tufts built some momentum and narrowed the deficit to just six points, 51-45, with a 10-0 run caped by a lay-up from senior tri-captain Maritsa Christoudias (Saddle River, NJ) at 8:34. Junior guard Erin Connolly (Syosset, NY) had eight points during the Jumbo stretch, including two three-pointers.
The Ephs answered by scoring 16 of the next 19 points to put the game away. Two free throws by senior tri-captain Sarah Dickens (Washington, DC) put Williams up by 19, 67-48, with 1:59 on the clock.
Williams played well defensively, holding the Jumbos to 30.2 percent (19/63) shooting. Tufts had entered the game ranked second in the conference with a 41.6 percentage. The Jumbos also turned the ball over 22 times, including 16 in the first half. The Ephs connected on 16 of 17 free throw attempts (94.1 percent), while Tufts was 8 for 13 (61.5 percent).
Hession finished with 17 points as the Ephs became just the second team to beat Tufts at home this year along with undefeated Bowdoin.
Powers led the Jumbos with 16 points and seven assists. Junior forward Allison Love (Duxbury, MA) had 11 points and nine rebounds.
In the other first-round games, third seed Bates beat sixth seed Amherst, 62-57. Top seed Bowdoin routed eighth seed Colby, 68-37. Second seed Wesleyan defeated seventh seed Middlebury, 66-53.
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