The women’s basketball team (6-12 overall, 1-6 Patriot League) lost to Bucknell at home last Saturday, increasing its losing streak to five.
Although the team did not leave Lewisburg with a win, three players finished the game with double-digit points. Junior guard Abby Antognoli and junior guard Halee Smith each finished with 17 points, while sophomore guard Kay Donahue ended with 10 points.
The Bison took an early lead, with a three-pointer bringing the score to 12-7 with 5:29 left in the first quarter. The Leopards’ luck began to shift when senior forward Kayla Drummond found the basket with a layup about two minutes later. Lafayette slowly closed the gap on the Bison, coming within three points at 20-17.
While the first quarter represented a slow start for the Leopards, the second began at a rapidly different pace. Lafayette took its largest lead of the game, going on a 13-0 streak for a 10-point lead. Antognoli, Smith, Drummond, Donahue and senior guard Makayla Andrews all contributed to the burst and pushed for a strong six minutes of offensive possession for the team. However, Bucknell then began to counter the efforts with a 5-2 run. This narrowed the Leopards’ lead to 32-25 at halftime.
“I feel they had a better intensity to start the game in the first half,” Antognoli said of the Bison. “We allowed them to get too many wide-open looks in the zone. However, our first half was the best basketball I’ve seen us play since conference play has started.”
Bucknell shot an efficient 53.3 percent from downtown compared to the Leopards’ 33.3 percent, while the Bison out-rebounded Lafayette by a margin of 30-21.
“We need to continue these ‘glimpses of great’ for the entire game,” Antognoli said. “We only gave up five points in the second quarter, compared to 20 in the first, so it displays that we can play good defense when all five players are committed to doing the work that’s necessary.”
The game shifted back in Bucknell’s favor in the third quarter when the Bison tied the game 32-32. The Maroon and White pushed back as both sides matched each other’s attempts, but the Bison finally regained an 11-point lead with 3:32 to go in the quarter. Lafayette trailed 51-40 to start the fourth period.
“The third quarter we didn’t have a very strong defense,” Smith said. “Bucknell scored on I think four possessions in a row. We needed to have better focus out of the half. They took the lead right back and our energy was low after that.”
Smith said that their goal is to take what they learned from this game and apply it to future matchups.
“We haven’t had the best conference play,” Smith said. “Overall, I would say if we continue to play like we did against Bucknell and work on some little things we need to clean up, we’ll be seeing more wins and good basketball.”
The team failed to win yet another contest against Loyola on Wednesday night. Once again, Lafayette held multiple leads before the game skewed in the Greyhounds’ favor, ultimately losing 67-60.
Notably, Andrews reached a thousand career points in the Leopards’ loss to the Greyhounds.
The women’s basketball team travels to face Boston University at 2 p.m. on Saturday.