Photo Courtesy of UR Athletics
On Sunday, Feb. 22, the UR Women’s Basketball team was defeated 72-79 in Cleveland by the Case Western Reserve University Spartans.
The game came just under a month after the original face-off between ‘Jackets and Spartans’, in which UR topped Case in a closely contested 55-54 victory.
This weekend, however, the Spartans came out looking for vengeance. Although the Jackets fought hard against the fellow UAA competitor, they ultimately came up short in an intense overtime loss.
Right from the tipoff, Case came out hot, leading Rochester by up to seven points throughout the first half. However, the ‘Jackets ended the half strong, closing the gap and going into halftime with only a two-point deficit and a score of 31-33.
Within the first two minutes of play in the second half, Case Western quickly stretched their lead to 6 points. Yet, UR did not give in, and they fought back, keeping the score close and taking the lead from Case for the remainder of regulation play.
With 14 seconds left on the clock and a score of 66-64 in the ‘Jackets favor, Rochester had the ball under Case’s basket. But Case’s tight defense prohibited Rochester from inbounding, and was called for a five-second violation, giving Case the ball under their own basket with 12 seconds remaining.
Rochester then fouled Case sophomore Jessica McCoy over a loose ball with five seconds remaining. The pressure was on, and McCoy came through for the Spartans, sinking both free throws and tying the score 66-66, forcing the game to continue into overtime play.
Case built on this momentum in overtime, and although the ‘Jackets fought hard, the Spartans pulled through. The Spartans earned a 79-72 victory in large part due to sharper shooting.
They boasted a higher overall field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage than the ‘Jackets.
Despite this tough loss, many players on the UR roster showed heart throughout the game. Key performances came from freshman Alexandra Leslie, sophomore Sarah Kaminsky, junior Tylar Guerrieri and senior Ally Zywicki.
Leslie scored an impressive 25 points, making 79% of her attempted shots. Zywicki and Kaminsky also put up strong numbers with 20 points and 10 points, respectively; and Guerrieri was the queen of the boards grabbing 11 rebounds.
This defeat brings the Jackets’ record to 14-10 overall and 6-7 in the UAA. UR hopes to overcome this loss in their final regular season matchup on Saturday against Emory University.
Cozen is a member of the class of 2015.
