Women’s basketball hosted the Haverford College Fords, winning 52-51 in overtime on Feb. 5.
Both teams struggled from the field with the Blue Jays’ star point guard junior Emily Howie being injured early in the second quarter. However, the Jays got the job done with a final defensive stop in the waning seconds of the game to seal the win.
The first quarter of the game started off rough for the Blue Jays. They managed to double their opponent’s score, but they only scored 11 in that quarter. They made only 30% of their field goals, but luckily, Haverford did even worse, scoring a mere 13% of their shots.
The second quarter saw no relief for the Jays as Howie went down, and the offense that was already struggling to score lost its key cog.
In an interview with The News-Letter, senior forward Erin Walsh described the moment Howie went down.
“I think seeing Emily go down was an emotional and scary moment for all of us. She's not only a great scorer but also the one who, as point guard, makes the play calls and handles the defensive pressure, so her not being on the court definitely shook us up,” Walsh said. “Despite that, we have full confidence in every member of our team, and situations like this are why we push each other so hard in practice.”
The Jays only scored six points the rest of the quarter. Going into halftime, they were still up by nine points, which felt like a large lead given both teams' aversion to putting points up. Coming out of the first half, both teams showed a much better scoring effort in the third.
Walsh, who led the team in scoring, explained how she played well despite moments of offensive droughts.
“My teammates had the awareness to feed me the ball when my shots were falling. That being said, when we’re in a scoring drought, and the shots haven’t been falling, I have to keep shooting to score and going up strong. Losing confidence because my shot didn’t fall will benefit no one but the other team,” she said.
By the end of the quarter, the Blue Jays led by 12 points. The offense still struggled, highlighting the loss of Howie. The fourth quarter saw these struggles come back to bite the Jays right as Haverford had their best-scoring quarter of the day. The Fords put up 17 points, including a three-pointer with seconds left to force the game into overtime.
Senior guard Diarra Oden failed to record a field goal in regulation but showed out in overtime. She made every shot she put up in the period and also drew a foul beyond the arch, making all three shots from the line. Oden ended up earning seven of the 12 points scored in overtime for the Jays.
But the game remained incredibly tight. The last two possessions revolved around freshman center Jadyn Murray. Haverford fouled Murray, putting her at the line in a high-pressure situation.
Murray missed both shots, allowing Haverford to use a timeout and draw up a potential game-winning play. However, Murray made up for her foul shooting by contesting the very last shot and sealing the victory for the Jays.
