W&J women fall to CMU
Every women’s basketball player in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference has a little more bounce in her step this year, and for good reason.
That’s because Thomas More, the school that put a stranglehold on the conference championship when it joined the league in 2005, is no longer in the PAC. The Saints won each of the last 12 PAC titles, though one has since been vacated.
So this season, teams in the PAC are no longer playing for second place. A conference championship is no longer a pipe dream. And you no longer have to be “perfect” in the games against teams not named Thomas More.
“Ultimately, you want to make the NCAA tournament. In the past, to make the NCAA tournament (as an at-large selection), you felt like you had to win all of your games except those against Thomas More,” W&J head coach Jina DeRubbo explained. “There were years when we lost only four games and didn’t make the NCAA tournament. You had to be perfect and it was stressful.”
This year, with the women’s basketball Goliath gone from the PAC, the league’s members can take some time to grow and work toward playing their best basketball in February, when the league holds its conference tournament with the winner gaining an automatic entry into the Division III tournament.
“There is more margin for error,” admitted W&J senior forward Danielle Parker.
That’s good for W&J because this is a season in which the Presidents can use some extra time for development and a rough night or two can be overcome.
One of those rough nights for W&J came Tuesday, when the Presidents fell into a big first-half hole, almost battled all the way back but ultimately ran out of steam down the stretch and lost to Carnegie Mellon, 77-57, at Henry Memorial Center.
The loss dropped W&J’s record to 1-1. CMU improved to 2-0.
This is one of the least-experienced teams DeRubbo has coached.
“We have to be one of the youngest teams in the country,” she said.
Parker, the former Canon-McMillan standout, was W&J’s only senior in uniform against CMU and the Presidents did not have a junior available.
So when Parker went to the bench after drawing two fouls in the game’s first three minutes, it was a bad sign for the young Presidents. Playing much of the first half with three freshmen on the floor, W&J fell behind 27-8 late in the first quarter against the more experienced Tartans.
Behind some strong play from sophomore forward Allie Seto and Izzy Allen, a freshman forward from Canon-McMillan, W&J managed to pull to within 43-32 at halftime.
Lauren Gilbert, a sophomore guard and returning starter, scored all seven of her points in the third quarter as W&J continued the comeback and pulled to within 49-45 after Seto scored off an inbounds play.
CMU led 56-49 after three quarters and used an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter to pull away as the Presidents’ youth again showed.
Katie Higgins led three CMU players in double figures with 17 points. Makayla Filiere had 16 points and Laurel Pereira scored 14. The Tartans shot 49 percent and forced 15 W&J turnovers.
Seto paced W&J with 17 points and nine rebounds. Parker had 10 points in less than 23 minutes of playing time.
“Getting a couple of fouls in the first three minutes, that’s all on me,” said Parker, who was the Presidents’ second-leading scorer last year when they had a 22-6 record.
“I feel a lot more responsibility this year. We had some errors that were communication errors. I felt like, ‘Do I speak up and make sure that we’re all on the same page?’ … This team is young but there is a lot of positives. The young players want to do big things. We’re ready for a good season.”
DeRubbo agrees that, though the Presidents must put youthful enthusiasm to the test, this can be a good team, perhaps one that will be playing its best come conference tournament time.
“We have a great sophomore class. We have good freshmen. The future is bright,” she said. “This group has been great. They are energetic, they’re working hard. I have zero complaints. We’re going to be good. We just have to stay the course.”