COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College women's basketball team rode one of its best defensive performances in recent memory to a massive victory this evening, stifling visiting Haverford from the opening tip and cruising to a 55-37 verdict inside Helfferich Hall. The Bears limited the Fords to nine first-half points, snapping a five-game losing streak in the series and pulling into a tie with Haverford for fourth place in the league playoff race.
Seemingly every statistic was more impressive than the next for Ursinus (9-10, 8-5), which earned a second consecutive victory following a five-game skid and gained a split of the season series with the Fords. Haverford (13-7, 8-5) rolled into town on a five-game winning streak, but its 37 points were the fewest by a Bears opponent since Gettysburg managed only 33 in a 2013 contest.
The Bears forced the Fords into 16 turnovers, 12 of them coming in the first half, and finished with 11 assists to just five turnovers of their own, leading to a 20-8 edge in points off miscues. Haverford was 2 of 14 from 3-point range and just 13 of 41 for the game (31.7 percent), which included a 4-for-16 effort in the opening half.
Senior guard Alyssa Polimeni filled the box score with 11 points, nine rebounds, six assists, and three steals, narrowly missing out on a second straight double-double after a 20-point, 12-board explosion at Swarthmore two days prior. Senior forward Elana Roadcloud landed just shy of her own double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds, and even hit her first career 3-point as the third-quarter buzzer sounded, staking Ursinus to a 44-254 bulge.
Fellow senior Jessica Porada paired 12 points with six rebounds for the Bears, and sophomore guard Rachel Guy chipped in with ten points.
The Bears shot 33.9 percent from the floor, actually an impressive mark considering the opponent. Haverford came in ranked seventh in Division III in field-goal percentage defense (.307) and ninth in scoring defense (49.5).
Outside of Sierra Berkel (14 points, 12 rebounds) and Olivia Walsh (14 points, six rebounds), the Fords' supporting cast was almost entirely silent. The rest of the team was 3 for 22 from the field and scored only nine points.
Ursinus put on a defensive clinic in the first half. The Bears forced 12 turnovers and held Haverford to just 25 percent from the field (4 of 16), allowing the hosts to gradually construct a sizeable advantage.
A jumper by Walsh pulled the Fords to within 8-6 with three minutes to play in the first quarter. After that it was all Ursinus. Haverford failed to score for the next 7 minutes and 42 seconds, by which time the Bears had reeled off nine unanswered points to go ahead 17-6, and the Fords could muster only a free throw for the rest of the half as the Ursinus run reached 19-3.
The Bears scored on four of their last five possessions in the first half, a spurt that began with a step-back corner jumper from junior Libby Lannon. Guy knocked down one of her own, and Shimrock scored on the break to push the margin to 23-8 with just over a minute left in the second quarter. After a Haverford foul shot, Porada's bucket with 19 ticks showing put Ursinus ahead, 25-9, at the break.
Porada made four of her five shots in the opening half, and Polimeni continued to be a do-it-all dynamo, coupling six rebounds with seven points in the first 20 minutes. Though the Bears shot only 34.3 percent from the floor in the half (12 of 35), they scored 12 points off the dozen Haverford turnovers and committed only one of their own, using 10 offensive rebounds to come up with seven second-chance points.
The three points surrendered in the second quarter were just one more than the Bears conceded to McDaniel in the opening frame of their matchup on January 9. Unable to find any semblance of a rhythm, the Fords managed only three points over the final 11:55 of the half, going 1 of 9 from the field and coughing it up seven times during that stretch.
Both teams found their shooting touches after intermission, but the Ursinus lead grew as large as 20 and never dipped below 13 as the Bears coasted to one of their most impressive results of the season.
The women's basketball team looks to complete a season sweep of one of the league's powers when it travels to Maryland for a showdown with McDaniel, which took over sole possession of first place after 12th-ranked Muhlenberg was upset at Gettysburg.