Freshman guard Emma Heaney had not played in a single game for more than 17 minutes since the season started in November. That was until Wednesday night, when she was in for the entirety of the game against Bucknell University.
“Being able to have an opportunity to try to prove myself, it just means everything to me,” said Heaney, stuffing the stat sheet with nine points, 13 rebounds and three blocks. “It was so fun.”
The women’s basketball team (4-5 Patriot League, 8-12 overall) split a pair of contests, falling 62-48 at Lehigh University on Saturday before topping Bucknell in a snowstorm-delayed home contest.
Saturday’s contest against Lehigh (6-3 Patriot League, 10-9 overall) saw the Maroon and White get off to a fast start, splashing four three-pointers in the first quarter to take a 20-16 lead.
Offense sputtered out for the Leopards, knocking down only four three-pointers the rest of the contest, while the Mountain Hawks kept their foot on the gas offensively. The final Lafayette three-ball came from senior guard Sauda Ntaconayigize to cut the lead to single digits, but Lehigh quickly re-extended its lead to double digits, clinching the conference victory.
“We’ve played in quite a few close games,” junior guard Teresa Kiewiet said. “Some of them we’ve pulled out, some of them we haven’t been able to, but we’re a young group, and we’re still learning how to close games.”
Wednesday’s match against Bucknell (2-7 Patriot League, 6-14 overall) was the team’s second shot at the Bison, winning 62-49 on the road earlier in the season. Without key frontcourt contributors in freshman forward Maddison Krug and junior forward Tasha Chudy, the Leopards turned to Heaney for a shot in the arm.
“I talked to her before the game, just play hard, get rebounds and do what you gotta do,” sophomore guard Talia Zurinskas said.
Knotted at 12 apiece with just over three minutes left in the opening frame, the Leopards blitzed the Bison, going on a 9-0 run, capped off by Ntaconayigize’s pump faking, relocating with a rhythm dribble and knocking down a three-pointer.
“Once we get two feet in the paint, we can spray the ball and we can get it out to our shooters,” Zurinskas said.
Zurinskas attacked off the dribble with back-to-back buckets to open the second quarter. Shortly after, however, Ntaconayigize left the game with a knee injury after contact in a rebounding battle, meaning even more minutes would go the way of the remaining Leopards starters, with Bucknell finding its offensive rhythm, creeping back in to make it a 34-30 game at the half.
Opening the third quarter, the Leopards found a flurry of offense, bursting out of the gates with a 9-0 run behind baskets from Kiewiet, Heaney and Zurinskas. However, the Bison quickly returned the favor, pouring together a 15-2 run to tie the game up at 45.
Kiewiet said that the difference between the two runs was “offensive execution.”
“We just weren’t knocking down the shots that we necessarily were, and we started to get in a little bit of a rush,” she said. “We were able to sew some things up a little bit, to tighten up defensively.”
Entering the fourth quarter up 50-48, it was again Zurinskas and Kiewiet leading the Leopards, getting in the paint and forcing the issue, scoring all 15 Leopards points in the frame. Heaney led the way on the defensive end, tallying all three of her blocks in the final quarter, swatting shots away left and right.
“We always talk about help defense,” said Heaney, who also tallied four of her 13 rebounds in the quarter, including her team-high five offensive rebounds. “We want as many second-chance opportunities as we can have, especially in critical opportunities.”
Bucknell failed to close the gap, and the Leopards comfortably took a nine-point, 65-56 victory.
The Leopards return home on Saturday to take on American University (3-6 Patriot League, 5-15 overall).
“We got people in and out of like the lineup and everything like that, and it’s just the next man-up mentality,” Kiewiet said. “I think we’re showing that anybody on our team can compete against any team in the Patriot League.”