Wednesday, Jan. 24, Elizabethtown College women’s basketball took on Juniata College and kept their at-home winning streak.
Coming into the game, the Blue Jays had a 7-0 at home record for the season. The win streak went up to eight after a 79-55 win over the Eagles. The first quarter was off to a great start, just like most of their games. After the first quarter was over, Etown already led by nine points.
First-year Veronica Christ hit her third three-pointer early in the second half and lifted the Jays’ lead. The Jays followed quickly with a few more shots.
Etown’s defense was another strong one and made the Eagles miss 10 of their 13 shots taken in the second quarter.
Junior Abby Beyer, sophomores Emma Hoesman and Marissa Emlet and first-year Ashley Reynolds all had assists for the second quarter, helping the Jays advance in their strong team play.
Juniata played harder the second half, but the Jays were able to keep up with their shooting and keep the strong lead they already had.
Christ completed her first career double-double in the fourth quarter and made two rebounds, giving her a game-high of 12. She made 17 of Etown’s points.
Saturday, Jan. 27, the lady Blue Jays played another home game, this time against the University of Scranton. The final score was 46-44, given in the last second to Scranton.
The game started rough for Etown and although they played a tough game, their winning streak got cut by Scranton. Scranton got the first score only 20 seconds into the game.
The first points for Etown were made by sophomore Lydia Lawson, who was assisted by Reynolds with a rebound from Scranton.
Both teams played strong, leading shot-after-shot. By the end of the first quarter Scranton already had a three-point lead of 12-9.
In the second quarter there was foul after foul on Scranton. This made the head coach Trevor Woodruff get very vocal. There was also a strong Scranton fan base that shared a lot of loud vocal opinions.
Beyer was a strong player in the second quarter, making a steal and helping the Blue Jays catch up to Scranton.
A major height difference between the Blue Jays and Scranton made it tougher for the Jays on the defensive game. They had to use their arms to make themselves look taller and try to block Scranton from shooting.
This game was played hard and ended up with a lot of people on the floor, with and without fouls. This showed a strong team bond when they helped each other up and congratulated good passes.
By the third quarter, Etown got their act together and did quick offensive passes to confuse Scranton’s hard defense. There was a back-and-forth lead between the two teams.
“I thought the game was pretty intense, especially at the end when extra time was added,” sophomore Jamie Verrekia said.
With 1:16 left, Reynolds made a rebound that tied the game. As the last second ticked, Scranton got a two-point basket, giving them the lead of the game. A call right at the end gave Etown six seconds to score one last basket, but they missed by just a hair.
The next game will be played Saturday Feb. 3 at Moravian College at 2 p.m.
