The date is Feb. 1 and there are ten seconds left in the third quarter. Graduate student guard June Dickson brings the ball up the floor. 

Five seconds. 

She dribbles to the top of the key and swings the ball to sophomore guard Tori Drevna. 

Four. 

Drevna pump fakes and dribbles to the left wing. 

Three. 

Drevna passes it back out to Dickson. 

Two. 

She takes her defender into the lane and looks for a pass. 

One. 

Dickson kicks it out to the now wide-open first-year guard Madison Gill, whose 3-point shot rainbows in as the buzzer sounds.

Bombers lead 51-42.

This highlight is indicative of the success that has come regularly for the Ithaca College women’s basketball team lately, who went on to win this home matchup against the Liberty League podium challenging Union College Garnet Chargers by a score of 74-61. A tough start to the season saw the team slide to 3-7, including a four-game losing streak which began with three straight losses to New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) teams and ended with a close loss to the Garnet Chargers, the Bombers have won 13 straight games and taken control of the conference. 

“It really took us — and when I say ‘us’ [I mean the] coaching staff and players — a lot longer than I anticipated to figure out what we needed to do,” head coach Dan Raymond said. “Since then, I think we have taken strides.”

The NESCAC is arguably Division III’s strongest conference in women’s basketball because it sports a division-leading five teams projected to make the NCAA Tournament and nine total teams rated higher than IC, per the NCAA Power Index. Senior forward Anya Watkins later emphasized just how serious that competition ended up being.

“Those were some tough games,” Watkins said. “Physically, mentally, emotionally; it was definitely a challenge for everyone on the team.”

In total, six of the seven non-conference teams that IC played hold a winning record as of Feb. 18, which when combined with a Bombers team struggling to find an identity early on explains their 1-6 record against them. Of those six schools, Trinity College, SUNY Cortland, St. John Fisher University and Tufts University are all ranked regionally by the NCAA. With Middlebury College also right on the national bubble, that makes five teams on the Bombers’ out-of-conference schedule have serious shots at making the NCAA tournament’s Field of 64. 

“I think [the non-conference games] helped boost our confidence,” Gill said. “We went into that NESCAC tournament seeing what we could prove. We didn’t pull away with the wins, but I think we’ve proved something because we hung around with those teams.” 

There is more to a turnaround than just starting conference play, though. 

“To me, the game that things started to come together was the Trinity game; that’s when things started to click,” Raymond said. “I think the execution of what we wanted to do on both ends of the floor was better. I think the biggest thing was energy — the attitude. That’s where I saw the most significant improvement by our players.”

The difference from game to game is noticeable. On New Year’s Day, the Bombers played against the Middlebury College Panthers for third place in the Springfield Tournament. This game saw the Bombers keep things close through three periods. 

Then they allowed Middlebury to shoot 77% from the field in the fourth quarter. A two point deficit became a 65-52 loss in just ten short minutes. 

A similar fourth quarter befell the Bombers two days later against Trinity. This time, Raymond’s team shot much better from deep — 37.5% against Trinity vs. 23.8% against Middlebury — ensuring the game would be a fight to the finish, with the South Hill squad coming up just short 69-64.

“Whether it’s hustling to get loose balls, mindset on rebounding, even being accepting of feedback, I think those have played a huge role in our turnaround in the season,” Watkins said. “Energy and attitude are big things.”

These improvements show in the team stats, as well. In their seven non-conference games, the South Hill squad shot 33.9% from the field and 23.6% on threes, well below DIII averages. However, in their 16 Liberty League Tournament games, these percentages have increased to 38% and 29.3% respectively. The field goal percentage puts the Bombers just above the national mark of 37.5% and at the time of publication, the latter would see the Bombers rank 60th in DIII, well above the national average 3-point mark of 28.1%. 

“I think a lot of [our offensive success] is us as a coaching staff putting people into positions where they feel most confident getting the shots that they’re comfortable taking,” Raymond said.

The defensive improvements may be even more notable. Raymond said he felt that the defensive intensity needed to improve, so he employed the simple yet effective measure of having the Bombers guard full court to harass the ball handlers. 

“If you do that the entire game, the thought process is that they will wear down and start making mental mistakes towards the end because they’ve had to be careful with the ball the entire game the entire way up the floor,” Raymond said. “So it’s more a press of attrition rather than trying to make something happen right away.”

Through the first nine games of the season, the team only managed to force 20 turnovers or more in a game once, in its Nov. 19 loss to St. John Fisher. In the 17 contests since, it has hit that total 10 times, including an impressive Jan. 17 performance against Clarkson where the Bombers forced 29 turnovers in regulation, which they have not achieved since 2018. Additionally, the Bombers lead the Liberty League Championship Tournament in rebounding margin — rebounds minus rebounds allowed — at 4.2, a testament to how much this squad has bought into the defensive mindset.

“We played against a girl the other day that was probably 6’4 and this past weekend close to 6’3,” Gill said. “So the way our posts have been able to play … with their athleticism, they’re able to play defense, get the boards and still get up the floor. I think that not many other teams have that asset.”

With Watkins’ nine rebounds per game anchoring that defense, this team could see themselves right back in the NCAA tournament: a proposition that seemed shaky just a few months ago. 

The 16-7 Bombers are in line to host the Liberty League Championship Tournament for the fifth time in the last six seasons as they look toward a conference title and a trip to the tournament, where Ryan Scott of D3hoops has them projected for a first-round matchup with No. 12 Gettysburg College Bullets. There, the Bombers can expect to see the same caliber of team they struggled with back in November and this time, they’ll be ready.