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Highlander Women Outlast the Raiders 

(Houghton, N.Y.)—In a tightly played contest—neither team ever held a double-digit lead—the Houghton College women’s basketball team had just enough at the end to outlast the Roberts Wesleyan Raiders, 56-53.

          Roberts took the early lead in the game and built it up to seven by the half, 27-20. “Offensively we struggled in the first half.” said Highlander Head Coach Skip Lord. “We had 16 turnovers in the first half, and it was killing us.”

          Lord said he made some adjustments at halftime, based on suggestions from his assistant coaches, Kevin Austin and Dan Williams. “They encouraged me to try a few things to be more aggressive and it opened some things up for us in the second half,” Lord said.

          Still, the Highlanders couldn’t catch the Raiders until there was just 6:36 left, and they never lead by more than five. Houghton used a strong rebounding effort to limit the Raiders to single chances.

“We out-rebounded them 50-35 and held

them to only four offensive boards while we had 15 ourselves, so we really did a great job there,” said Lord. It worked, despite the poor shooting night Houghton was suffering through (20-for-59, 33.9 percent).

          With 1:31 to go, Houghton enjoyed its largest lead of the night at 54-49, but two turnovers cut the lead to 54-53 in just 38 seconds. Some tough defense and one free throw each from Leah French and Stephanie Hudson sealed it for the Highlanders.

          It was part of an impressive night from Hudson, who shot three-for-five from the field, including two-of-three from beyond the arc on her way to 9 points. She also had two assists, no turnovers and two steals in just 15 minutes of play.

          Ashley Dupler led the Highlanders with 17 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and a blocked shot.

          French had 16 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. “She was aggressive in the second half and opened up a lot of things for us, even though she didn’t shoot real well herself,” said Lord.

          The win puts the Houghton women at 11-9 on the season and draws them even in the American Mideast Conference North Division at 4-4. Their next five games are at home against AMC North opponents, starting with Carlow University on Friday night at 7.