By Joey Kimmel ’17, Contributing Writer
On a cold Thursday night in Lancaster, the F&M Women’s Basketball team could not stop the hot shooting of Haverford College, and lost to the Centennial Conference leaders 61-48.
The Dips got off to a good start with an 8-2 run, exploiting their size advantage down low with seniors Kristina McCarthy ’14 and Emma Lisle ’14, but the Fords responded with relentless full-court pressure and a barrage of outside shots, led by their sharpshooter Nina Voith ’16, who finished with 19 points.
“I thought we handled Haverford’s pressure well, ” said Kristen Richter, head coach of the F&M women’s basketball team. “We attacked in transition and some good looks.”
The first half was a closely contested battle of styles, with the Fords taking a halftime lead, 26-25.
The second half started out poorly for the Dips, as the Fords jumped out of the break with an 8-0 run. This lead was not relinquished for the rest of the game, as Haverford’s outside shooting was too much for the Dips to overcome, despite the Dips’ effort to close out on shooters and contest shots.
“It was (Haverford’s) ability to hit contested long-range jumpers that helped them pull away,” said Richter.
Overall, Haverford was 9-23 from the three-point line. By contrast, the Diplomats were only 1-11 from behind the arc. Forward Jessica Dowicz ’17 brought great energy off the bench on both ends of the floor for the Dips, and finished with 14 points and 7 rebounds.
McCarthy (11 rebounds) and Lisle (8 rebounds) did a solid job of limiting the Fords to only one shot per possession, but too often those shots went in. The Fords were able to push their record to 10-1 in the conference, and 16-1 overall. The Dips fall to 1-10 in the conference, and 3-15 overall.
Next up for F&M is an away game at Johns Hopkins University on Wednesday, followed by a home game against Washington College on Saturday at 1 p.m.