Mar 6, 2016 4 min read

Maybe the best thing to do with the tapes of this women’s college basketball game is to crumple them and set them ablaze.

In a game that Washington & Jefferson College needed to wrap up an ECAC Division III South Region title, the shots did not fall.

The problem was not from long range, but from right underneath the basket.

The Presidents missed nine shots from no more than two feet, including three layup tries in the final minutes, that resulted in a 73-70 loss Sunday to Stevenson in the championship game at Henry Memorial Center.

“I think that was the difference in the game. We had some opportunities to break their backs when we were down and came back and could have taken the lead, but we missed some wide-open layups, some bunnies,” said a befuddled W&J head coach Jina DeRubbo. “It’s really uncharacteristic of this team. That put the nails in our coffin.”

The Presidents (24-6) missed 45 of the 70 shots against Stevenson. And W&J’s offense does not rely on three-point shooting. The Presidents were next-to-last in three-point shooting in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference but second in field-goal percentage.

Stevenson held leads of 50-39 with 5:05 remaining in the third quarter and 67-58 with 5:54 remaining to play. Each time, W&J battled back, the final time with 44 seconds to play, cutting the Stevenson lead to 71-70 on a layup by Beka Bellhy. Caitlin Roy sank two free throws for Stevenson to make it a three-point game with 11 seconds left. Bellhy’s shot from behind the arc missed and the buzzer sounded seconds later.

“We were just able to knock down a few more shots than them,” said Stevenson coach Jackie Boswell. “They have a good all-round team and we knew they liked to go up and down (the court). That’s the pace we like to play. We thought we matched up pretty well.”

W&J’s frontcourt did a great job against the taller Stevenson players, holding the Mustangs to just three offensive rebounds. Sara Tarbert, a 6-1 junior forward, was coming off a 38-point effort in an 83-75 win over Waynesburg Saturday that put the Mustangs in the finals. She finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds. But the Mustangs shot well, 52 percent on 28 of 52.

“We thought we had to make them beat us from the outside and control (Tarbert),” DeRubbo said. “We did a good job on her, kept her under her average.”

And the Presidents handled Tarbert with Rachel Bellhy, a 5-9 sophomore forward, mostly on the bench with foul problems. She logged 19 minutes, failed to score, missing all nine shots, and fouled out with 4:30 to play.

“Rachel Bellhy is a great player,” said DeRubbo. “She’s had a really good year, but just missed some shots today. I don’t think she’s ever gone 0-for-9. She’s won a lot of games for us, but today couldn’t make a basket.”

Beka Bellhy wrapped up her career by scoring 26 points, pulling down nine rebounds and handing out five assists. She is W&J’s third all-time leading scorer with 1,602 points and seventh in career rebounds with 697.

“Beka has meant so much to this team over the years,” said DeRubbo. “She is the most competitive kid I’ve ever met. She just wills this team to win. How many times has she put this team on her back and say, ‘We will not lose today?’ She played a great game today and we just came up a little short.”

Amirah Moore finished with 15 points, including 7 of 10 from the free throw line. Taylor Cortazzo and Danielle Parker each scored 10 points.

Stephanie Martinez had 14 points but also made six of Stevenson’s 20 turnovers. Caitlin Roy had 12 points and eight rebounds.