NEW YORK CITY—The record-setting 2014-15 Women's Basketball
season came to an end on Friday night in the first round of the NCAA
Tournament.
No. 22 Eastern University Women's Basketball fell 68-51 to
the No. 12 Amherst College Lord Jeffs in the Eagles' first ever NCAA Tournament
contest.
Eagles' head coach Nate Davis said after the game that just
making it to this point was quite the accomplishment for the program. “We're
extremely proud of the season we had and of this team,” he said. “They laid it
on the line night in and night out. Obviously it's tough to lose … but at the same
token I think it's important … to keep perspective about the fact that we went
further and set the standard for women's basketball at Eastern University.
“Hopefully
classes to come beyond these ladies are going to carry that torch and represent
Eastern well. I can't say enough about this group of seniors and about this
team.”
Shots weren't falling for the Eagles and they ended up with
their worst shooting percentage in nearly two full seasons with an 28.6 percent
mark (16-for-56). Amherst's long defenders made good shooting options difficult
for Eastern in the paint and then also made it hard to get an outside-game
going. The Eagles went 3-for-14 from long-range.
“We lost to a great team, a great program that has a great
tradition,” Davis said. “They're big. They had a good gameplan. It was obvious
that they were packing it in and trying to stop what Meghan (Nowak) brings to
the table offensively. They were double-teaming her. They were also big in the
guard position and they were able to recover and close back out on our shooters
pretty quickly.”
The Jeffs, on the other hand, made slightly better than
every other shot they took connecting on 27-of-50 attempts (54 percent).
Amherst forward Megan Robertson scored a game-high 22 points on 11-of-15
shooting, corralled nine rebounds and blocked five shots.
Eastern freshman guard Taylor Price recorded a team-high 11
points. Everyone else that scored for Eastern had eight points. Kaitlyn
Dougherty, Kaleigh Boreman, Gina DiDomenico, Emily Lavin and Meghan Nowak each
recorded eight. Lavin added eight rebounds and four blocks.
Nowak, with 1,899 career points, graduates as the second
all-time leading scorer in Eastern's history. Dougherty joined Nowak in the
1,000-point club this season and finished with 1,043 career points.
DiDomenico rounded out her career with 171 successful
3-pointers, the most ever at Eastern. Boreman graduates with the fourth-best
career 3-pointers made total with 104.
The Eagles fell behind 9-0 to start the game. DiDomenico scored
the first seven points for the Eagles. The Eagles trailed by as many as 14 in
the first half. Eastern cut at the lead and knocked it down to six points with
three minutes left in the half on a 3-pointer by Boreman. However, Amherst
knocked down two 3-pointers before halftime and two free throws with two
seconds left to make it a 14-point game.
Eastern got to the free-throw line 14 times in the second
half while Amherst only had six attempts. Amherst shot 55 percent from the
floor while Eastern's shooting percentage dipped to 25 percent. The Eagles
weren't able to close the gap to single digits in the second half.
Eastern University Women's Basketball finished the season with
a 22-6 record. The Eagles went undefeated at home, beat three teams that were
nationally-ranked including the No. 1 team in the nation, advanced to the
conference championship and the NCAA Tournament for the first time.
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