Women's Basketball Falls To Nationally-Ranked Williams, 64-40

Williamstown, MA --- Williams sophomore Devon Caveney (Andover, MA) notched a game-best 17 points with seven rebounds and three assists to help lead the Ephs to a 64-40 victory over Worcester State in the Williams Tip-Off Tournament this evening.

The Ephs, who are ranked 15th in the latest USA Today/WCBA Division III National Poll and 17th in this week's D3hoops.com Top 25, improve to 4-0. The Lancers fall to 2-2 in the loss.

Senior Ellen Cook (Eugene, OR) and sophomore Lauren McCall (Natick, MA) also chipped in with nine points each while freshman Amanni Fernandez (Queens, NY) pitched in with eight points and a trio of steals.

Senior Shannen El-Qasem (Rutland, MA) netted 16 points and she finished with a game-best nine boards.

Freshman Nani Perez (Worcester, MA/Holy Name) added eight points, five rebounds and two assists as senior Julie Frankian (Millbury, MA) and classmate Kiesha Jones (Worcester, MA/Doherty) both pulled down seven boards each.

Williams opened the game with the early 19-8 edge on the back of a Thompson three-pointer with 11:38 left in the opening frame and led 29-18 at the intermission.

Scoring 11 points – including nine alone on three trifectas – Caveney led the charge in the second stanza as she sparked a 15-6 surge to help the hosts open up a 46-24 margin at the midway point of the final peirod.

The Lancers never threatened as the Ephs maintained double-digits and earned their first home win of the campaign.

Williams held the slight rebounding advantage (41-38) while also leading in second chance points (17-7), baskets off of turnovers (18-10) and bench scoring (18-8) as points in the paint were even (22-22).

The Blue and Gold were limited to 29 percent shooting for the contest (16-for-56) and WSU sank just two of their 14 attempts from beyond the arc. The Ephs connected for a 42 shooting percentage (25-for-60) as one third of their total offense came off of a six-for-19 effort from three point land.

The tournament continues when Worcester State takes on Misericordia tomorrow at 1 PM while the Williams entertain Babson at 3.