While in the midst of the final few games of its 2008-09 schedule, the women’s basketball team has gone through the year and done everything a team could do. Ithaca has won and lost games by small and large margins, while beating teams with outside shooting and inside scoring. In just a few weeks though, they will play the same teams for a second time, which can be a challenge.

“Even though you know what to expect, everyone is better later on in the season,” sophomore forward Elissa Klie said. “Someone has always won the last game, and there is always that revenge factor.”

The Bombers have successfully faced that factor this season, especially after starting conference play with an 8–0 record before falling to Utica College 56–45 on Jan. 31 for their first loss in the Empire 8.

Against the five teams the Blue and Gold have faced twice this season, they have beat four of them both times.

“If you’re a team on top, it is always harder to play,” senior Tracy Bradley said. “The bottom teams have nothing to lose.”

Because of the increased difficulty, the team sometimes has to adjust its play and try to figure out how opponents are adjusting to it.

In preparation for its game against Hartwick College last Friday, the team had already learned that the Hawks had problems keeping control of the ball when the Bombers trapped off the opponents’ screens. Assuming that Hartwick would devise a game plan to combat that by slipping to the basket or popping to the wing, the Blue and Gold switched the person they were guarding on the ball screens instead. That kind of adjustment resulted in a 21-point victory.

Sometimes though, the opposing team’s adjustments force the Blue and Gold to increase their intensity. As has been the story throughout the year, Bomber forwards have simply outrun opponents down the floor, often converting easy layups. Opposing teams have learned that at this point though, and they now sprint back on defense to the paint.

“When anyone inside has a great game against a team, the second time around the opponent knows we like to run, so they try to shut us down in transition,” Klie said.

Despite opponents’ efforts to beat the Bombers down the floor, the constant collapsing to the paint opens up the three-point arc for the guards.

“It’s hard for other teams to defend us,” Klie said. “Somebody can step up at any given time.”

The South Hill squad has a tendency to score in bunches, rattling off four or five threes in a row, which was evident in the victory over Hartwick as the Bombers hit eight three-pointers as a team.

The balanced attack allows Ithaca to keep its identity intact, while only having to make those minor adjustments on a game-to-game basis.

This season, opponents not only have to stop the Blue and Gold twice, but they have to do it on the road and during the season’s end. The Bombers  play five of their last six games in Ben Light Gymnasium.

“It is a lot easier on us mentally and physically,” Bradley said. “It is tough missing classes and sitting on the bus for a couple hours on away trips.”

This has been an advantage for the Bombers this season as they have posted a 7–0 home record. Playing in the same gym where the team shoots and practices every day has proven to take away some of the difficulty of playing teams for the second time.

“Having home games in the last half of the season is crucial, especially around crunch time,” senior guard Megan Rumschik said.

With the race to host the Empire 8 tournament heating up, the Bombers will look to keep up their excellence at home tomorrow when they will take on the revenge factor against St. John Fisher College, who they lost to in Pittsford, N.Y., less than two weeks ago.