By Michael Kowaleski
When the Lafayette women’s basketball team faced the Syracuse Orange on November 19, they sank 56 percent of their field goals and 66 percent of their 3-point attempts in the first half. They hung tough with the Big East squad, going shot for shot as they went in the locker room feeling great about their performance.
In the second half, they shot only 31 percent and missed all seven of their shots from beyond the arc. Lafayette lost by 20 as the final whistle sounded, after keeping up with a competitive Big East opponent in the opening frame.
“We were talking after the game, and we said to each other, ‘Did we have to go in at halftime?'” Head Coach Dianne Nolan said three weeks later. “‘Can we stay out there?’ We need to figure that out, how to refocus and come out strong again.”
The discrepancy in performance by half has been the story of the Leopards season so far. In a loss against Monmouth on November 27, Lafayette trailed by 17 going into halftime. In the second half, however, they furiously stormed back, with their shooting percentage rising nearly 20 percent from the first half. They ended up falling by only four points.
In the Leopards’ five losses, there has been a noticeable difference in their performances by half. In two of those losses, to Rider and Syracuse, their first half performance was significantly better than their second.
In their wins against St. Peter’s and Wagner, their stat line is largely consistent.
In their most recent win had Lafayette jumping out to an eight point lead going into the half, but needing to stave off a Manhattan comeback to pull off the victory. They shot 39.3 percent in the first half, making three of five 3-pointers, but converted only 15.4 percent of their shots in the second half while sinking one of three treys.
“We just need to pull together a complete game,” said forward Sarah McGorry ‘12. “If we manage to put two good halves of play together, we’ll be dangerous to any team.”
Guard Missy Downey ‘12 said the inconsistent outside shooting has been a culprit.
“We have great players down low,” she said. “But if we don’t stay consistent with our outside shots, the opposing defense is just going to keep collapsing on our forwards. They won’t be able to do much if teams are running a constant 2-3 zone. We need to show that we can hit shots from the perimeter so that Emily [Homan ‘15] and Danielle [Fiacco ‘14] aren’t always double-teamed.”
“That’s been our real Achilles’ heel,” Nolan said about Lafayette’s perimeter shooting. “I feel like it’s there, though. Shooting can be such a mind game at times. Sometimes it can feel like you’re heaving a boulder, sometimes it feels like a tennis ball. I really give [the players] a lot of credit, because instead of hanging their heads they get into the gym and work.”
It will be important to take the load off of forward Homan and star center Fiacco, who, along with McGorry, are carrying the team of late. Homan won Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors for a stretch in which she averaged 8.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocked shots. Fiacco, who entered the week ranked second in the country with an average of five blocked shots a game, added six rejections against Manhattan.
As Downey pointed out, however, their opportunities will be somewhat limited without consistent shooting.
“Opponents will double and even triple team us at times,” Fiacco said. “So if we have the ability to fake the ball inside and spread it around the outside, we’ll have so many open looks. And if we make those shots, we’ll be a tough team to beat.”