The UR women’s basketball team celebrated more than just the new year over the holiday break. They dominated opponents over the past month, posting a 7-1 record since Jan. 3. This record includes an impressive win in the JPMorgan Chase Scholarship Tournament.
In that tournament, the women downed three straight local foes to grab the title. In the first round, they dominated Keuka College, winning with a score of 81-46. The Yellowjackets never trailed in the game and got strong performances from senior Jessie Graham and junior Megan Krebbeks. Both players had 12 points, with junior Jamie Mooney close behind with 10 points. Graham was on fire from behind the arc, hitting four of seven three-point shots.
The win earned the women a spot in the semi-finals against SUNY Geneseo. Much like in the first round, the Yellowjackets controlled the majority of the game. After trading buckets for the first five minutes, UR went on a 10-0 run to capture a lead they would not relinquish. The Yellowjacket defense held Geneseo to 23 percent shooting and came away with a 78-35 victory. Guard and junior Danielle Muller led the Yellowjackets with 12 points.
Even though their first two wins in the tournament were decisive, the women knew they had to step up their game for the finals. St. John Fisher college, a local perennial powerhouse, was their foe and the Yellowjackets had tasted defeat at the hands of the Cardinals in this tournament last year.
The first 10 minutes of the game were very balanced, with neither team ever leading by more than five points. With seven minutes left in the half, however, UR went on an 8-0 run that turned a variable three-point lead into a comfortable 11-point advantage. The majority of the second half went back-and-forth, but Fisher could not make a considerable run, and the Yellowjackets took the title with a score of 75-58.
UR got a huge lift in the final from a rather unexpected source. Guard and freshman Helen Baroody came off the bench to score a team-high 18 points. Her stellar performance earned her the tournament MVP award. She is the first freshman in the history of the tournament to win the award. Graham finished with nine points, four rebounds and six assists and was named to the All-Tournament First Team. Coach Jim Scheible praised his team for their tournament performance.
“[It] was very good for our young team to win that,” Scheible said. “It gave us a lot of confidence heading into the league games again.”
That confidence was on display as the women hosted Emory on Friday night. Emory, 0-4 in University Athletic Association play at the time, seemed to be overmatched from the start. The Yellowjackets never trailed in the game and rolled to a 70-47 win. Graham and freshman Alex Porter led all scorers with 11 points each. UR dominated inside, out-scoring Emory 36-16 in the paint.
“The win over Emory showed just how deep we were as we jumped on them early and then kept pushing the lead up with whoever we brought in,” Coach Scheible said. All in all, a very good team win.”
UR finished their impressive run Sunday with a convincing 73-55 win over Case Western Reserve University. The Yellowjackets began the game out-of-sync, and fell into a 13-5 hole just six minutes into the contest.
After bouncing back to tie the score at 25, UR took control with a 20-4 run in just over a nine-minute span. From there on out, it was smooth sailing for the Yellowjackets, who used numerous substitutions in the second half to keep the players from tiring.
Muller led all scorers with a career high 25 points, hitting 11 of her 19 field goal attempts. She also had nine rebounds in the game, six of them being on the offensive glass. The Yellowjackets were paced by point guard and junior Emily Bango, who stuffed the stat sheet with six points, six rebounds, four steals and six assists. Porter also helped the cause by pulling down a game high 12 rebounds.
A big part of the Yellowjackets’ success so far this season has been the contributions by the bench players. This season, ten players are averaging more than 12 minutes per game.
“I would say this is the deepest team I have ever had to coach,” Scheible said. “From one through 15 – the team has 15 players – our players can all play. That has made our practices outstanding.”
The Yellowjackets’ record stands at 13-3 overall and 4-1 in UAA conference play. The team hits the road this week to face Washington University in St. Louis on Friday and the University of Chicago on Sunday.
Moeller can be reached at amoeller@campustimes.org.
