Ben Martin – Sports Writer
Coming out of the half, the Owls were up against the Dominican University Chargers by four points; however, in the third quarter that lead would expand.
With just six seconds off the clock, guard Isabella Santoro, graduate student, disrupted the passing lane causing a steal. After the steal, she dribbled the ball down the court and scored on what Owls play by play announcer Chris Smith called a “coast to coast delivery.”
Santoro’s layup was the catalyst for the Owls offense as they scored 22 points in the third quarter which lead them to defeat the Dominican University Chargers 68-60 on Tuesday.
“We always have a little bit of a third quarter drought,” Owls head coach Kate Lynch said. “We know as a group we can be better and we needed to fix that,”
In the second half, we stopped the ball, we limited their offensive rebounds and we executed offensively Lynch said.
After Santoro’s basket, junior forwards Ashley Evans and Katie Williamson lead the scoring attack in the third quarter for the Owls by scoring nine and eight respectively, totaling 17 of the 22 points scored in the quarter.
“I am happy that I was able to support the team and do the critical things to make sure we got the win in the end,” Williamson said.
In the fourth quarter, the Owls and Chargers went back and forth scoring 11 points apiece which led to the Owls ending the game with an eight-point lead.
“Today we showed our strengths, but also our weaknesses, so just keeping the hard work in practice to get better,” Evans said.
In addition to their third quarter scoring, Evans and Williamson both had double doubles on the night. Evans finishing with 15 points and 10 rebounds and Williamson finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
“I think I did really well because I have been playing as an out,” Evans said.
Along with Evans and Williamson, graduate student guards Zoe Amalbert and Delaney Connors were both close to double doubles with Amalbert scoring 13 points and having eight assists on the night and Connors scoring 15 points, tying Evans for the team lead, and dropping seven dimes as well.
With Amalbert, Connors, Evans and Williamson all amassing over 10 points, the Owls had four out of five starters scoring double figures.
“Overall, we are very happy,” Williamson said. “It’s great to get a bounce back win after the last game.”
The Owls prior matchup was against Southern New Hampshire University which they lost at the Moore Field House 58-55 which put extra emphasis on winning Tuesday’s matchup
“We really talked about bouncing back from our loss against SNU,” Lynch said. “We had to try to control the boards a little bit more and focus on stopping the basketball.”
The emphasis on stopping the basketball paid off as the Owls won the turnover battle with the Chargers, forcing 16 turnovers while coughing the ball up 14 times.
The Owls win improves their record to 3-1 through their first four games. However, with 22 games left on the schedule, the team is looking for areas to improve upon as most of the season awaits them.
“Just keep the energy up and keep the morale up,” Williamson said. “As long as we work hard and keep doing what we are doing we will do the best we can.”
Along with Williamson, coach Lynch looks ahead for improvement gradually throughout the season.
“We just have to keep getting better, we just have to keep progressing,” Lynch said. “As long as we are continuing to evolve and progress and fix some small thing, I think we will be ok. We just have to continue to get better.”
