Houghton Women Fall
to Mansfield, 72-66
(Houghton,
N.Y.)—The Houghton College women’s basketball team fell behind in the first
half and could never quite make up the deficit, losing 72-66 to Mansfield
(Pa.) University at the Nielsen Center on Saturday afternoon.
“We turned the ball over too much,” said Highlander Head Coach
Skip Lord, “Turnovers hurt us and we had a lot.” The Highlanders had 23
turnovers on the game, to 20 for Mansfield. A handful came early in the
first half when Mansfield used a three-quarters press to build a lead.
Lord said that his team’s trouble with the Mansfield pressure
surprised him. “We’ve been effective against a press.” Lord said, “I think
we got a little rattled…We got a little bit back on our heels, got a little
bit defensive—we do better against the press when we attack and look ahead,
and we got tentative and didn’t attack like we needed to.”
Another first-half difference was three-point shooting: the
Highlanders hit just two of eight in the first half, while the Mountaineers
were connecting on five of 11.
“We’re a helping type defense that tries to take away the
penetration and the inside game and they shot the ball well, especially
Espigh.” Lord said. He was referring to the Mountaineers’ Alicia Espigh, who
had a game-high 22 points, including four of seven from beyond the arc.
It was Espigh who hurt the Highlanders’ comeback attempt at the
end of the game as well. Houghton had cut the Mansfield lead from 10 points
down to five with 3:44 left, when Espigh hit three-pointers on consecutive
possessions and made the lead 11.
“She made a couple of big threes when we were responding,” Lord
said. “She hurt us from the outside.”
Leah French, who led the Highlanders with 19 points, made both
ends of a one-and-one to cut the lead back to four points (66-62) with 1:14
left. After several scoreless possessions, though, the Highlanders were
forced to foul and the Mountaineers were a perfect six for six from the line
in the last 13 seconds to seal the win.
“We won the second half,” Lord noted, “but we obviously didn’t win
it by enough to make up the difference.”
Houghton actually made one field goal more than Mansfield, but the
Mounties had two additional three-pointers and shot 11 of 14 from the free
throw line while Houghton went five for eight.
Ashley Dupler had 13 points and eight rebounds for Houghton, while
Cassie Merrill added nine points. Courtney Brooks had 13 points and Clarissa
Correll hit 12 for Mansfield.
Houghton is now 4-3 and won’t play again until after Christmas,
when they go on the road to Fisher College in Boston on December 29.
Mansfield improves to 2-3.
Houghton College
has deep
and
solid
roots in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, where our
teams use their commitment to excellence, both on the field-of-play
and
in the classroom, as a platform for their strong and
unique emphasis on Sports Ministry. Their goal is to make a difference
for the Kingdom
on campus, in Allegany County,
in the Northeast and
around
the world.
Houghton is one of only 13 institutions who have been hand-selected
by the NAIA to serve as "Champions of Character" Program Centers, opening the door
for Houghton to be a leader,
both in the Northeast and
nationally, in character education.
Through hands-on,
innovative community outreach initiatives, Houghton coaches and
student-athletes
are working together to change the culture of sport and
to change our culture through sport.
