The women’s basketball squad suffered their second consecutive loss to Gettysburg College on Tuesday with a final score of 82-66 in favor of the visitors. If anything, the score on its face shows the lack of control that the Mustangs were able to initiate in the game. It still doesn’t tell you the full story, however.
As the broadcast pair for the online stream of the home game alluded to as the game waned on, pacing was the core component of the game.
When they were able to settle down, positive things did happen. However, the Mustangs surrendered multiple runs to the opponents that were fueled by a number of passing errors and turnovers. Meanwhile, the shots were seemingly being rushed in the halfcourt in the heat of these tears.
Yes, basketball games can be dictated by these spurts, but even these were not your standard sorts in the basketball realm. A 24-6 run was the first to truly test the will of the team, in which 8 different players got on the board for Gettysburg in the game. An 11-2 run was also given up by the Mustangs at some point in the 2nd quarter.
The lead was as great as 20 points, and it was the culmination of seemingly fixable miscues coming back to bite them instantly. The advantage goes to Gettysburg in a couple of key aspects, as they had a 28-11 advantage in points off of turnovers paired up with an insane 13 steals, while also attaining a 19-3 advantage in fast break points.
“Yeah, turnovers…very uncharacteristic of us. Not being able to handle pressure,” head coach Jackie Boswell said. “I thought we gave up too many runs. When we started to make a run, we gave one up. We couldn’t withstand it.”
To overcome these kinds of droughts, you have to go blow-for-blow with an opponent when they try to incorporate their reflective style on a match. As these runs were happening, the possessions for Stevenson looked as though they moved a little too quickly, leading to some of these results. On the other hand, the defense would either be out of position in the fast break or dissected with fundamental basketball elements on the part of Gettysburg’s offense.
Most of the shots surrendered were truly high-percentage looks, and there was yet another advantage in offensive rebounds (11-6) in the event of misses. The flow of the game felt so out of hand at a point that the sentiment was just to force their hand at some point or another before it was too late.
It wasn’t all bad for the Mustangs, as they did have short spurts of their own to try to get themselves back in the ball game.
Ennis had 10 points and 5 assists, while fourth-year forward Tessa Boswell chipped in a pair of 3-pointers.
If there was an undeniable bright spot in the performance, it was second-year guard Anaya Price and her shooting prowess in the game. She finished with 24 points on 67% shooting from the field and added 5 threes on 55% shooting from long-range. This served as a counter in ways to the performance of Gettysburg’s Olivia Jones (23 points/5 steals), and that kind of offense was much needed with the direction of the game.
“Every game, I just work as hard as I can. I have a lot of supportive teammates, they want everyone to do well, and I feel like that the reason why I think I can excel on the court,” Price said.
The fight to win was there as they lead was being chipped away, and you have to give the squad credit for that. Ultimately, in a 16-point loss, the extra possessions and the lack of direction in pace ultimately became too insurmountable to overcome.
The team has a long break before heading to Berea, OH on Monday, Dec. 29th to face off against Baldwin Wallace University at 5:00 p.m. for the first match of the BW Holiday Classic.
