LEXINGTON, Va. – The Washington and Lee women's basketball team dropped a close 57-54 decision to Swarthmore in Holekamp Gym on Sunday afternoon.
The fourth quarter was the closest of the game, with Swarthmore (3-2) slowly extending its lead to five points over the first four minutes (47-42). A made layup from junior
Olivia Berntson (Memphis, Tenn. / St. Agnes Academy), plus four total made free throws, had W&L (3-2) back in front by a point with 4:26 to play. Both teams then traded a layup and two free throws, followed by a layup from Swarthmore's Anna Hansson and two more foul shots from senior
Kathryn Vandiver (Charlotte, N.C. / Charlotte Latin School).
Still leading by a point, the Generals went scoreless over the final 1:20 of play, while the Garnet's Alyssa Hayashi sank a layup and two free throws over the final 64 seconds to give Swarthmore the win.
The Garnet opened the game with a 12-0 run spanning across the first five minutes before first-year
Mary Schleusner (Charlotte, N.C. / Charlotte Latin School) got W&L on the board with a layup. The 12-0 run by Swarthmore to start the game helped the team outscore W&L, 16-4, in the opening frame, led by five points each from T Sallie and Raven Richardson.
The Generals flipped the script in the second quarter, however, scoring the first nine points of the stanza during an overall 12-1 run to cut their deficit to 17-16. W&L continued the run by scoring 10 of the final 15 points of the quarter, 22-6 in total, to take a four-point lead into the halftime break. Schleusner led the first-half scoring for the Blue and White with 11 points, seven of which came in the second quarter.
Just like they did in the first quarter, the Garnet came out with a 16-4 run to start the third, led by eight points from Norah Wingfield, to move ahead by a 38-30 score with 3:38 left in the period. A bucket from junior
Grace O'Connor (Hillsborough, N.J. / Hillsborough) and a pair of makes from Schleusner pulled W&L back to within four points heading to the final quarter.
Schleusner led the way for W&L with a game-high 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting, and she added seven rebounds, three assists and six blocks. Vandiver tallied nine points on 3-of-4 shooting from both the field and the free throw line to go along with four rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots.
The Garnet had three players reach double-figure scoring, led by Wingfield who notched 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Richardson added 13 points, five rebounds and three blocks, while shooting 5-of-8 overall, and Hansson finished with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting.
Both sides struggled from beyond the arc and each made just one triple on 14 attempts from Swarthmore and 13 from the Generals. Overall, the Garnet were held to 33.9 percent (21-62) from the floor, while W&L made 39.2 percent (20-51) of its shots. Swarthmore also held a 14-5 edge in second-chance points.
The Generals will return to ODAC play in their next game, a 5:00 pm home tip-off on Wednesday against Hollins.
