by Sean Begin
The win last Tuesday night for the women’s basketball team wasn’t as easy to finish as it was to start.
Despite jumping out to an early 14-1 lead over Vermont, the Blue Devils needed overtime and a last-second shot by senior center Amanda Harrington to secure the 77-75 victory, the team’s second overtime win this season.
“I missed the first one but my only thought was get the rebound and get it back in; I have to get it,” said Harrington after the game of what was going through her head.
After Vermont’s Kayla Burchill hit a three-pointer to tie the game 75 with 10 seconds left to play in overtime, Piper called a timeout to set up a play for her team. Harrington was fed the ball on an inbounds pass and swung around for the layup.
The ball bounced off the iron right back at Harrington, who recovered her miss and put it through on her second attempt to give Central (3-2) the win.
“The Vermont kids played so hard and made some really, really big plays when they needed to make big plays and that’s just so tough for them,” said head coach Beryl Piper. “But our kid we’re able to get it done and make the plays that they needed to make.”
Central opened the game with four different players recording a basket before junior forward Nicole Ferguson hit back-to-back threes to push the early Blue Devil lead to 14-1. But the Catamounts (0-4) battled back and scored the final six points to go into the locker room at halftime down only 31-27.
In the second half, Central had as big as a 10-point lead with less than ten minutes to play. But an eight-point run by Vermont pulled them within two with just under seven to go, until they finally took the lead with 2:39 on a free throw, eventually tying the game the same way to send it to overtime.
“We needed to make plays in the end and try not to foul because we made some boneheaded fouls in the game,” said Piper. “And we were able to do that. We had a group of kids on the floor in the end that were able to get it done for us.”
Central faced foul trouble early and often, with five players recording two fouls in the first half. Both junior forward Tejahne Malone and junior guard Kayla Miller fouled out in the game. Harrington, who had been forced to the bench after her fourth foul, re-entered soon after, when Malone fouled out.
Harrington played the rest of the second half and all of overtime with four fouls, maintaining steady defense in the paint and not drawing any fouls.
“[I tired] not to let the person get the ball initially so I wouldn’t have to worry about the foul. And then just help over without swinging, staying straight up, just trying not to foul out,” said Harrington.
Central was helped in the game by big performances from Ferguson and redshirt-freshman guard Lauren Wolosik, who led the team with 17 points. Ferguson took only six shots Tuesday night but hit four of them, all from three-point range, including one early in overtime with a Vermont player in her face.
Wolosik, who is coming off of ACL surgery, struggled to find her shot in the first four games of the season, going just 3-for-26 from the floor. But on Tuesday she hit seven of her 14 shots, including a three and two free throws.
“She’s been busting her butt,” said Harrington of Wolosik. “She’s been working as hard as she could every day to make sure she doesn’t fall behind because of the knee, so it’s good for us to have her back.”
“She’s done so many other things well for us except for scoring, so it was just kind of her getting back into rhythm,” added Piper. “It was really great for her to have a great game tonight.”
Central was helped by their depth in the game against Vermont. After losing 47 percent of their offense when their seniors graduated, there’s no clear-cut scorer for the Blue Devils.
“It’s not like we have one or two go-to players, everyones a contributor to the team and that’s what we go off of,” said Harrington. “If we can get everybody to play and play well, we’ll be fine.”
“It’s nice to go to the bench and kids are going to be able to make the plays when we have to. And I think the more minutes those kids can get the better we’re going to be,” said Piper. “So it was really nice to be able to weather the storm with all our kids in foul trouble. But we have to stop fouling. We foul way too much.”
The Blue Devils next take the court in Detrick Gym tonight at 7 p.m when they face the University of Maine.