Visiting Washington College had three players score in double figures en route to a 58-52 win over host Haverford College on Wednesday evening at Gooding Arena in Centennial Conference women’s basketball action. The Shorewomen improve to 9-10 overall and 7-7 in conference action, while the Fords fall to 8-12 and 5-10 respectively. The Shorewomen sweep the season series with the Fords for the second straight year and three times in the past four seasons.
Victoria Sobocinski drained a three-pointer to give Haverford an 18-14 lead with 8:12 to go in the first half when Washington went on an 18-1 run to take a 32-19 lead with 2:20 left in the opening half. Freshman guard/forward Erin Fitzgerald (Greensboro, NC/Bishop McGuiness) scored the first hoop of the run on a layup with 7:29 to go and freshman guard Kelly Mitchell (Laurel, MD/Academy of the Holy Cross) tied the game 18-18 on a jumper in the paint with 6:58 remaining. Junior guard/forward Sally O’Donnell (Cape May Court House, NJ/Wildwood Catholic) put Washington back in front on a three-pointer with 6:22 left in the half. After a free throw by Haverford’s Dominique Meeks cut it to 21-19, Washington scored 11 straight points. Mitchell hit a trifecta with 5:56 to go and 34 seconds later freshman forward/center Latisha Pledger (Indian River, VA/Chesapeake) scored on a bank shot leading to a Haverford timeout. The Shorewomen would get jumpers by Fitzgerald, Mitchell and O’Donnell respectively with 3:51, 3:20 and 2:20 left in the half. The Fords would score seven of the last eight points in the half to cut the lead to 33-25. Calla Miller’s jumper beat the buzzer to close out the half and cut the WC lead to eight. In the first half, O’Donnell had 15 points to lead all scorers.
In the second half, Fitzgerald made two free throws to give Washington a 38-29 lead with 14:07 left in the game. The Fords would answer with an 8-2 run to trim the lead to 40-37 with 10:07 left in the game on a pair of free throws by Meeks. The Shorewomen would then score the next nine points to take a 49-37 lead with 8:21 left in the game on a traditional three-point play by junior guard Meghan Tait (Oxford, PA/Oxford Area). Haverford would cut the Washington lead to 51-45 with 5:48 to go in the contest on a Meeks layup, but they would draw no closer. The Shorewomen went on a 7-2 run over the next 5:13 to lead 58-47 with 35 ticks left on a two Tait free throws. The Fords scored the final five points of the game to provide the final margin.
O’Donnell led WC with a team-best 17 points, while Mitchell added 16 points. Fitzgerald added 11 points for the third WC player to tally double figures and she grabbed a team-best seven rebounds. Tait dished out a game-high five assists. Tait and Fitzgerald had two steals to tie for the game-high.
Meeks had 18 points and 12 rebounds, both game-highs, to lead the Fords. Sobocinski had 14 points for Haverford. Cara Wyant had two blocks to lead all players and Rachel Baskin had two steals to tie for tops in the game.
Washington shot 32% in the game, 32% from three-point land and 70% from the line, while Haverford shot 41% from the floor, 25% from behind the arc and 57% from the charity stripe. Washington made 16 free throws to just four for Haveford. The Shorewomen had a 41-34 edge on the boards and only had 11 turnovers to 17 for the Fords.
Washington returns to action on S
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