Coming into this season, UR Women’s Basketball (URWB) was expected to do a lot. They were coming off an excellent season of 23 wins and an Elite Eight appearance. Last year, however, was just that—last year.
“This is a whole new year,” head coach Jim Scheible, said. Scheible, who is now in his 26th year as a coach here at the University, has a career coaching record of 326–141 coming into this season.
The Yellowjackets were ranked #7 in the country in the preseason poll on D3hoops.com. They were put to the test early by teams eager to prove their worth against a prestigious team, defeating William Smith College and SUNY New Paltz so far this season.
Although they defeated both opponents by double-digits, they had to pull away in the fourth quarter after slow starts in both games. In their first game of the season against William Smith, the Yellowjackets did not gain their double digit lead until the fourth quarter.
In their Nov. 18 game against New Paltz, URWB trailed by ten points at halftime. On Saturday evening, the Yellowjackets were unable to recover from another slow start against the University of Scranton, suffering their first defeat of the season in the championship game at the annual Chuck Resler Tournament in the Palestra.
The ‘Jackets were led by freshman point guard Brenna James, who shot 6–13 from the field and scored a career-high 19 points, 15 coming from three-pointers.
Junior center Al Leslie scored 16 points, and fellow junior forward Lauren Deming had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Ultimately, they were let down by their defense, as they were unable to get any key stops against Scranton.
The Yellowjackets aim to improve their record on Tuesday night against Oswego.
