Women's Basketball opens home season with win

By Scott Bumbernick

After nearly a week and a half off since the completion of the Marymount Tournament, the Elizabethtown women’s basketball team was back in action. Tuesday night the Lady Jays played hosts to the Pioneers of Widener in the Commonwealth Conference opener for both teams.

Before Tuesday’s game, Etown had a 30-4 all-time record against the Pioneers dating back to the 1976-1977 season. Last year the teams split the season series with both teams winning on their home court.

The game started out rough for the Blue Jays as Widener started out hot by taking a 10-2 lead. The first half was a game of runs as Etown came back to score 24 of the next 35 points to take a 26-21 lead.

Widener finished off the half by scoring 6 of the next 7 points to even the score at 27 at the half. Widener, which is second in the conference in team shooting percentage, lived up to their expectations in the first half as they shot 42.3 percent from the field.

The Lady Jays on the other hand shot 26.5 percent. But the game remained close as Etown played great team defense and took control of the boards. Junior guard Jessica Smith led the team in scoring in the first half with 8 points and junior point guard Cherrissa McCoy chipped in 6 points.

In the second half the tides turned as Etown shot 40.7 percent from the field. Widener did not meet their performance level of the first half as they shot 29.3 percent from the field which allowed Etown to take over the game.

The Blue Jays continued to improve their inside game, even though junior forward Jess Hollinshead was in foul trouble throughout the second half. McCoy was also in foul trouble in the second half but freshman Dana Voit filled in nicely at the point position. Coach Yvonne Kauffman used some of her coaching wizardry to keep players rotating in and out to always have the best players on the court and prevent players from fouling out.

The defense was another factor which led to Etown’s final push. The constant changing of defensive looks confused the Pioneers and allowed Etown to accumulate 13 steals and caused Widener to commit 15 turnovers in the game.

The Lady Blue Jays also took control of the boards as there were two players with double digit rebounds. Freshman forward Amy Nawoczenski came off the bench to provide 13 rebounds and classmate Christina Buso added 11 more rebounds.

Buso also added to the scoring with 8 points. Etown finished off the game by shooting a perfect 10 for 10 from the free throw line in the last minute and a half to preserve the win.

This was the second win in a row for the Lady Blue Jays. The 66-58 win over conference rivals from Widener improved the record to 2-2 overall and 1-0 in the Commonwealth Conference. The loss was the first on the season for the Pioneers as they witnessed their record fall to 3-1 overall and 0-1 in the conference.

Outstanding performances in the game for the Blue Jays were turned in by the previously mentioned Smith, McCoy and Hollinshead. Smith played a great all-around game and ended up with 15 points, 3 rebounds, 4 steals and 4 assists. McCoy also had 15 points, 2 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists. Hollinshead tallied 12 points and 4 rebounds.

Action since the last edition of the Etownian included the Marymount Tournament which was played over the weekend of November 22-24. In the Arlington, Va. tournament the Lady Blue Jays amassed a mediocre 1-2 record.

The first game was played against the preseason 16th ranked team in the nation, Salisbury University. Salisbury took the game 82-75 despite the outstanding performances of Smith and Buso. Smith led the team with 17 points and Buso cleaned the boards with a total of 17 rebounds in her first collegiate game.

In the second game Etown fell in a heartbreaker to nearby Gettysburg College 60-57. The Jays were led in this game by the 18 points of McCoy and the 11 points by freshman Braun.

In the final game of the tournament, Etown defeated Sewanee, the University of the South 67-45. The win secured a seventh place finish in the tournament for the Blue Jays in their first competition of the year. Jess Hollinshead led the way for the Jays with 15 points and 7 rebounds and sophomore Jenny Roberts added 10 points and 11 rebounds.

The Lady Jays return to the court tomorrow afternoon as they travel to Selingsgrove to take on the Crusaders of Susquehanna for a Commonwealth Conference matchup.

This will be the last game for the Jays before the winter break. The teams split the season series last year as both teams once again won at home.

Looming ahead for the Blue Jays at the end of the month is the trip to Daytona to participate in the Land of Magic Tournament. This tournament should provide some tough competition for the team as they will play teams they have never played before and know very little about.

The schedule for Florida pits the Blue Jays against Wisconsin-Stout in their first game and the next is against Fitchburg State.