Despite suffering two defeats at the season opening Eastern Michigan tip-off tournament last weekend, the women’s basketball team will head into the Thanksgiving break confident of notching its first win. The Red (0-2) travels away to Albany later today for an evening tip-off against the Great Danes (0-1). On Sunday, the women will play the first of two successive games at Newman Arena, when they entertain Rice (1-0).
The Red opened its season with a disappointing 82-67 defeat at the hands of hosts Eastern Michigan. Senior guard Breen Walas had 21 points and sophomore Karen Force added 14 points and 5 assists, but Hawks pulled away in the second half behind some outstanding perimeter shooting. The Hawks drained 10 of 19 treys, hitting on 46.3% of shots, compared to just 35.0% from Cornell.
In the consolation game of the Holiday Inn Express Eagle Classic, the Red fell short to Austin Peay 66-61, despite a furious late comeback. Sophomore Lauren Kilduff had a standout day in a losing effort, tallying a career high 17 points.
Against the Great Danes, the women will be looking to repeat their feat of last season, when they recorded a comfortable 60-46 win in Albany. Senior guard Do Stevens led the scoring with 13 points, while sophomore forward Tanya Karcic chipped in with 12 points and 7 boards. The player to watch for Albany will be forward Jess McGinlay, who led her team with 10.1 points/game last season, and tormented the Red with a 23-point outburst in the head to head meeting.
The Lady Owls are coming off their finest season in school history, in which they won 22 games and earned a NCAA tournament bid.
The Red’s task will not be made any easier by the fact that the Lady Owls return three starters from last year.
Archived article by Soo Kim