Ithaca College women’s basketball bested the William Smith College Herons on Jan. 13 at the Ben Light Gymnasium 66-57. Junior guard Tori Drevna drove the Bombers to victory with a career-high 23 points, despite being without head coach Dan Raymond for the evening.
Drevna’s 23 point showing is nothing unfamiliar to the Bombers. Drevna took 20 shots from the field, at least 13 more than any of her teammates, including an impressive five of seven from three.
In Raymond’s place, assistant coach Elizabeth Thompson stepped up to coach the team to victory. After a slow first quarter for the Bombers, Thompson activated the Bombers’ full court press, which changed the game’s tone significantly.
“Looking player to player, especially at guard, we have more strength than they do,” Thompson said. “[We knew] they couldn’t handle our pressure in that scenario.”
After deploying their press, the Bombers did not look back. Thompson’s squad forced 29 turnovers out of the Herons, heavily leaning momentum to the Bombers starting in the second quarter.
A seven-point Bombers lead at halftime turned into an 18-point lead by the conclusion of the third quarter. The Bombers kept their methods of scoring balanced, earning 27 points from behind the arc, 11 at the line and 26 in the paint.
Going into the second half, Thompson encouraged her squad to keep it simple.
“Go out and fix the box-outs,” Thompson said. “Just play free and play basketball. … Those controllables that you can go out and control. We were just all on the same page in that second half.”
Thompson’s squad responded well, putting up 24 points in the third quarter to the Herons’ 13.
Despite the nine-point Bombers victory, the Herons were able to expose the weaker parts of the Bombers’ game, winning the boards battle 57-36, and drawing 20 personal fouls, which earned 23 free throw attempts, 14 of them good.
This appeared to be the difference from a 41-point loss in the Herons’ last game against the Bombers.
Similarly to the last time the two squads matched up, William Smith managed a quicker first step than the Bombers, grabbing an 8-2 lead early, courtesy of a turnover-filled first quarter. Out of a timeout, Thompson lit a fire under her squad, sending them on an 11-0 run to close out the first quarter, putting them up 15-11.
Despite shooting only 6-23 from the field in the second quarter, the Bombers still managed to jump out ahead with an 18 point quarter, granting themselves an at the time game-high lead of 33-26 at halftime.
By the time the final 10 minutes began, the Bombers were out to a comfortable 18-point lead. The Bombers’ lead stretched to as far as 24 with just around five minutes remaining in the game, and did not score again, allowing the Herons to go on a 15-0 run before the final buzzer, ending the game at 66-57.
The Bombers now wade into the thick of their Liberty League schedule, facing Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for a 5:30 p.m. tip–off Jan. 16 at the Ben Light Gymnasium.
