January 28, 2023: WashU wins another big one, Whitman with the West Coast surprise
Welcome to the weekend! Lots of action to look forward to over the next two days, but here’s a look at some of the most notable results from yesterday’s slate in D3 women’s hoops!
In yet another massive resume builder for WashU, the Bears went on the road last night and took down 16th-ranked Rochester, tagging the YellowJackets with a third straight loss. The 75-67 win for WashU further adds to a strong tournament resume, with wins over Chicago and NYU now as well. Unlike the men’s side, road wins are graded exactly the same as home wins, but whether it shows up in the SOS calculation or not, victories on the road are much harder to come by. That’s what made WashU’s win so impressive. It might be the Bears’ best road victory over the year thus far. Maya Arnott was outstanding, with 23 points and 12 boards for WashU, while Jessica Brooks had 19 points and six assists. Katie Titus struggled a bit for Rochester, and as we saw last week, Rochester didn’t really have anyone stepping up around her. Rochester was out-rebounded 44-22.
A couple weeks ago, I said that I did not know if I’d ever seen a better offensive quarter than what I saw from UW-Eau Claire in a massive third quarter against UW-Stout. The defensive equivalent of that came in the third and fourth quarters of last night’s 55-37 NESCAC win for first-place Trinity (CT) over Hamilton. After going into halftime up two, Trinity successfully held Hamilton (who is a solid shooting team by the way), to consecutive six-point quarters. Hamilton couldn’t get anything to fall, just the nature of the game really, and the way Trinity was playing defense. The Bantam defense held Hamilton to a 4-of-21 shooting mark in the second half, while they themselves put 28 points on the board. Trinity has Amherst today at home. Might be an interesting one. Though Wesleyan beat Amherst 65-61 last night, dropping the Mammoths to a mere 2-4 in conference play.
If there was one result I really did not see coming, it was Whitman’s 61-50 win over #17 Puget Sound. I was very surprised (and impressed) by the intensity with which Whitman played. They are clearly a different team than they were back in November, and last night’s win was the Blues’ sixth straight. Using a small rotation, four of Whitman’s five starters logged at least 32 minutes, and Korin Baker, who had 24 points and 10 rebounds, was on the floor for all 40. Whitman’s defensive effort paid dividends, as PS has been a very solid shooting team from three-point range. The top three-point shooting team in the NWC at 33%, the Loggers were a mere 6-of-34 from beyond the arc.
It’s not often you see non-conference games being played at this time of the year (unless, of course, you’re a C2C team haha) but Concordia-Chicago is playing right now in a the 70th annual Concordia Invitational Tournament (CIT). And it’s just what it sounds like; four “Concordia” institutions battling it out in a two-day event. CUC took down Concordia (MI), an NAIA program, 71-65, as Kate Benes had another incredible day, scoring 30 points. Fairly large crowd was on hand as well, and overall, it’s just a fun event to see schools competing outside of their division sharing in a common history that they both somewhat share (with their institution’s history).
NESCAC action one more time: Bates actually stunned Middlebury, who had been playing very well as of late, by a 72-59 margin Friday night. Bates was near-unstoppable offensively, shooting 47% from the field. Middlebury seemed somewhat out of sorts, and trailed by 21 with 9:45 in the third quarter. Middlebury is at Tufts today, while Bates hosts Williams.
Final thought: I was at the ETBU-UMHB game on Thursday night, and saw ETBU pull out a 67-61 win. I’ve always really liked the way Blake Arbogast runs his team. The Tigers play so hard and are one of those teams that always seems to put up a good third quarter. They opened the third against UMHB on a 13-2 run after going into halftime trailing by seven. ETBU kept its scoring balanced, and did a great job of getting to the rim in transition, with 25 fast-break points. They seem to be rising to their peak at the right time. As for UMHB, they put up a very hard fight considering the week it has been for them. Kendra Foreman, the interim head coach, was not available for comment postgame, so I haven’t had a chance to ask her about the approach with the team over the past few days. We’ll see how the Crusaders do moving forwards. Certainly feel for them and the situation they’ve been thrown into.
Looking ahead to today’s here’s five games to be keeping an eye on… (All times EST)
Marietta at #10 Baldwin Wallace, 4 pm, WATCH: Will Marietta take down the OAC’s best for the second straight week?
Bethel at Concordia-Moorhead, 4 pm, WATCH: Two of the MIAC’s best battle it out in order to stay in conference title contention and set up seeding for the postseason tournament.
Middlebury at Tufts, 3 pm, WATCH: Middlebury needs a bounce-back. Tufts is trying to hold strong in second place in the league standings. This is a big one for both teams at this point in the season.
Kean at New Jersey City, 1 pm, WATCH: The NJAC’s top two teams face off…winner takes sole possession of the No. 1 spot in the league standings.
U of New England at Roger Williams, 1 pm, WATCH: Big-time Commonwealth Coast Conference matchup here…UNE needs a win to hold a head-to-head result and stay in the regular season title discussion. Top two teams in the CCC battling it out.