What it rains, it pours. And on Sunday, it poured for the AU women's basketball team against the Colgate Raiders, as it lost, 72-63, at Bender Arena.
Playing without leading scorer, senior guard Tala Hadavi, who injured her knee in practice this week, the Eagles struggled defensively against Colgate. They had defeated the Raiders earlier in the season in Hamilton, NY.
"We played pretty well and I thought we had the game under control for the most part, but we just didn't play a very good second half today," said Eagles coach Melissa McFerrin.
The Eagles started four freshmen and junior Tara Williams, going with one of the youngest lineups possible.
AU was led by three of their stud freshman. Pam Stanfield scored 12 points and handed out six assists. Sahar Nusseibeh scored 13 and pulled down seven rebounds and fellow frosh Tish Curry scored 12, grabbed eight boards and had four big blocks for AU.
Colgate freshman Gretchen Polinski scored a career-high 23 points and Melanie Cargle went for 22 and dished out nine assists to tie her career high, set earlier in the year against AU. Meghan Curtin chipped in with 14 off the bench.
Megan Ballard also became the all-time steals leader in Colgate history.
"She was open all day, she shot the ball and it went in," McFerrin said. "She was not a player we were supposed to lose today."
Both teams shot well at 44 percent from the field. But unfortunately for the Eagles, they were hot early, shooting 52 percent in the first half before cooling off to 36 percent in the second half.
On the other hand, the Raiders, who shot 39 percent in the first half, reversed course and hit 50 percent of their shots in the second twenty minutes.
AU struggled again from the line, shooting only 57 percent, including 3 of 8 from Nusseibeh.
"We made a concerted effort to get the ball to Sahar all day, but in the first half, our post players didn't get great position, but they were more effective in the second half," McFerrin said.
Playing inspired basketball throughout the first half, AU entered the locker room with a 37-34 lead, led early by a balanced attack in which all nine of their players scored, led by Tish Curry and Pam Stanfield, who scored six each.
After playing most of the first half in a dogfight with the Raiders, the Eagles had 5-0 spurt with eight minutes to go in the first half that gave them a 17-11 lead. After a timeout, Polinski (12 first-half points) caught fire and scored seven straight to put the Raiders up by one.
Nicole Ryan then entered the game and immediately made her presence felt with a 3-pointer on her first possession of the game. Both teams went back and forth for the next four minutes until a Cargle 3-pointer tied the game with 16 seconds left.
After a near turnover, Stanfield drove to the middle of the floor, pump-faked her defender and knocked down a jumper as she got fouled. After converting the free throw, the Eagles entered the break with a 37-33 lead.
Polinski came out on fire in the second half, hitting three quick 3-pointers to give the Raiders a 45-41 lead with 16 minutes remaining. Then Nusseibeh went to work, scoring five straight for the Eagles.
After a Ryan 3-pointer pulled the Eagles to within two points, 60-58, with 5:39 left, AU faded down the stretch. The Raiders pounded the ball inside and hit their free throws to beat the undermanned and undersized Eagles.
"I'm proud of our players because we gave ourselves a chance to win," McFerrin said. "And I'm disappointed at the same time, because we took those chances away. We played with great energy and passion, but we lost our composure a little, and that comes with inexperience."
The loss knocked the Eagles to 3-7 and into sixth place in the league, as they prepare to visit the 8-2 Black Knights Tuesday evening. Army is tied with Bucknell for first place in the PL.
