After beating a red-hot Rowan University in dominant fashion, the William Paterson Pioneers women’s basketball team yesterday faced off against the Marywood Pacers. Marywood entered this contest winning 4 out of their last 5 games.
Before tip-off, it would seem William Paterson would blowout the Pacers and keep their undefeated record alive in smooth fashion, but this game would end up being far from a blowout.
Senior forward Tamari Hubbard would lead the charge for Marywood to start this contest by converting a three-pointer, making both of her two free throws, and knocking down a midrange pull-up. Besides that, the first quarter was all Pioneers.
Patty Walsh, Renee Wells, Jada Jacobs, and Luna Kirby were constantly putting pressure on the rim and turned defense into offense. Such as Megan Sears stealing a pass from senior guard Mia Blume. Leading to Sears and Jacobs playing two-on-one in transition against freshman guard Jewlya McCullon. Ending with Sears passing the ball to Jacobs, who got fouled by McCullon for a and one layup. Jacobs this quarter would also make a three-pointer off the catch in transition after receiving a pass from Sears. William Paterson left the quarter having full control with a 25-12 lead.
Marywood wouldn’t lie down after the rough start as they mounted a comeback in the second quarter. A key part in this comeback was the Pacers utilizing a 3-2 and 2-3 zone defense. This forced William Paterson’s offense to be out of rhythm for the majority of this quarter. As they would force the Pioneers to commit some turnovers, leading to transition scoring opportunities and missed shots that should have been easily made. Daniella Ashby, Jewlya McCullon, and Oliva Ciullo made the biggest contributions during this quarter.
Ashby would make a putback layup, and McCullon would be fouled by Walsh on a layup attempt and make both free throws. After cutting to the basket, Ciullo would be fouled by Kirby and make both of her shots from the charity stripe to cut the lead down to 29-27. Not too soon after this, McCullon would move off the ball, eventually creating for herself an open three-pointer, momentarily giving the Pacers a 32-29 lead. Luna Kirby would immediately respond with a three-pointer of her own to tie the game. To end the first half Wells attacked out of the post and would spin middle, creating an open layup to give William Paterson the lead back as they headed into halftime up 34-32.
The second half saw the Pioneers come out with their hair on fire and take command of this game. As they started the third quarter on an 11-0 run, Kirby, Jacobs, and Patty Walsh served as the engines of this run. Starting with Kirby making an open three off the catch from the top of the key. Jacobs converted a floater and a layup. Walsh made a putback layup after Kirby initially missed. Kirby delivered a mid-range jumper, and Walsh emphatically blocked Anyah Ortiz layup to cap off this run as Marywood called a timeout after this play. Following this run, both teams would trade blows back and forth as the third quarter ended with the Pioneers having a 51-42 lead.
In the fourth quarter, sophomore guard Kaelyn Gowdy made sure to not give the Pacers any life. As she started this quarter making two floaters and giving good ball pressure to force senior guard Megan Cavoli to turn the ball over out of bounds while dribbling. After the Pacers called a timeout, Jacobs would keep applying pressure. As she forced a steal, then pushed in transition, she would pass it to Walsh for a layup. Walsh again cut to the basket, but this time sophomore forward Kasey Slade would find her as she made the layup despite getting fouled.
William Paterson would fend off the Pacers as they would go on to win 70-57. The Pioneers now sit with a 10-0 record as they will have some downtime before traveling to Baltimore, Maryland on January 3 to face off against Johns Hopkins University.
