An amazing season of Ithaca College women’s basketball came to a heartbreaking conclusion as the Bombers fell to the Vassar College Brewers 66-53 in the Liberty League Championship Tournament final on March 2 at the Ben Light Gymnasium.
The Bombers have already played the reigning Liberty League champions twice this season, beating the Brewers in their first and final regular season conference games. The latter of the two contests, a 78-74 away win Feb. 22, was also the Bombers’ only overtime game of the season, further building the expectation of a highly competitive championship match.
The Bombers went into this pivotal match-up down a starter because sophomore forward Elizabeth Majka was out for the Liberty League Championships due to injury. Sophomore guard Tori Drevna started in her place.
The first quarter was a tightly contested affair because the Brewers took a 9-4 lead before a lay-up through contact for first-year guard Madison Gill and a top-of-the-key 3-pointer from sophomore guard Zoraida Icabalceta tied it up. However, a 10-2 run for the Brewers gave them a lead they maintained through the end of the period.
The Bombers erased the deficit during the second quarter largely due to increased scoring inside the paint. Of the 16 points they put up during that period, 13 resulted from either shots made in the paint or free throws made after fouls in the paint.
The 7-0 IC run at the end of the half best exemplified this focus: Gill converted an and-one lay-up, Drevna hit a fall-away jumper to beat the shot clock from the second hash mark, and senior forward Anya Watkins laid one in on the fastbreak as time expired to make the game 31-all at halftime.
The second half started off very well for the host because graduate student guard Emma Waite buried two triples in less than a minute and gave the Bombers a four-point lead, their largest of the night so far. Unfortunately, this is where their luck seemed to run out.
Up to this point, the Bombers’ uncharacteristically poor shooting from beyond the arc had been offset by the Brewers making just six shots between the start of the second quarter and the middle of the third. From five minutes left in the third quarter — the time of the Bombers’ last lead of the game — to the final buzzer, Vassar shot .600 from the floor. The Bombers only hit .200 in that same timeframe.
Despite all of this, the Bombers were able to get what was once a double-digit deficit down to six points with 2:43 left in the fourth quarter. However, four turnovers and zero made shots over the rest of the game would officially end their season.
“We got off to a bad start, turned the ball over, missed some open shots, couldn’t ever really get on a run to put things together,” head coach Dan Raymond said. “We never really got anything going offensively. I think that was the biggest disappointment.”
An IC team that had been one of the most efficient scoring teams in the Liberty League for the season shot just .351 on the day, the team’s worst field goal percentage in the last 10 games. The statistics from deep look equally bleak; after a semi-final where five different players hit a 3-pointer, the only two to hit from beyond the arc March 2 were Icabalceta and Waite, who made four and two of their attempts, respectively.
While Vassar had three players score at least 18 points, the standout performer for the Bombers was Watkins, who put up 16 points and 11 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season. She finishes the season with 237 rebounds, just three off the program’s all-time single-season top 10.
Raymond said the final locker room conversation with this year’s team served to do more than describe that final match.“We talked about the season, what they provided, and what they did,” Raymond said. “So it’s just a thank you for the efforts and energy that they put in for the season.”
