On Jan. 22, the women’s basketball team lost to Centennial Conference foe the Gettysburg College Bullets 52-44. Gettysburg moved to 15-1 on the year. Hopkins moves down to 10-6. Sophomore forward Diarra Oden led the team with 15 points while freshman guard Emily Howie lead the team with nine rebounds and four assists.
Both of these players also lead the team in these season stats: Oden has 274 points and Howie has both 111 rebounds and 53 assists. Howie and Oden also tie for the lead in steals.
It is impressive to be leading in three different categories as a freshman and Howie elaborated on her success.
“To be leading the team in assists, steals and rebounds as a freshman is kind of insane,” she said. “My teammates are amazing at getting open, so I owe my assists to them. The rebounds are quite a surprise because usually I’m the shortest on the court and I like the challenge of trying to out rebound taller people.”
Overall, the first quarter was very competitive. Oden, the team’s usual go-to scorer, started the game off with a layup. Five minutes into the game, Hopkins led 7-2 thanks to another Oden two-pointer. But with two and a half minutes left, Gettysburg came back to tie the game at nine.
The rest of the quarter saw several lead changes. Hopkins made a layup to take the lead. Then, the Bullets made a layup of their own to tie it back up. Oden went to the line and made both of her free throws. The quarter came to an end after freshman forward Kristin Ralston made a layup to give the Jays a 15-13 lead.
The second quarter was even more competitive than the first. Eight of the game’s 10 total lead changes occurred in this quarter. Gettysburg quickly took the lead, making the score 17-15.
This was followed by a couple of minutes when neither side scored. Both teams committed a couple of turnovers as neither could pull together a good offensive possession.
But with about five minutes left in the half, the Blue Jays went on an 8-2 run, featuring three-pointers by Oden and Howie, to take a small 23-21 lead. For the next four minutes, there was another dry spell and neither team scored. Gettysburg closed out the half with a layup to tie the score.
The second half started with a Gettysburg 8-2 run. This run quickly changed the dynamic of the game. After this point, the Blue Jays were never able to get a lead.
Oden tried to bring the team closer with another three-pointer, but Gettysburg did not relent. Hopkins only scored eight points in the the quarter, and Oden was responsible for six of those points. Gettysburg managed to almost double the Blue Jays’ total, with 15 points in the quarter.
Ironically, the team shot better in the third quarter than in the second quarter when the score was going back-and-forth. Gettysburg simply had a much better offense, going 7-15 shooting in the third quarter. By the end of the quarter, the Bullets had gotten their lead all the way up to seven.
The fourth quarter didn’t bring much relief for the Jays. Gettysburg did not let up and they increased their lead to 13 points. This was the biggest lead of the game, and there were about six minutes left to play.
Hopkins then went on an 8-0 run towards the end of the quarter, bringing the lead back down to 5. With two and a half minutes left to play, victory was certainly possible. Hopkins took a timeout to prepare a winning strategy for the last few minutes. After the timeout, Gettysburg turned the ball over.
But the Blue Jays could never come any closer than five points. Gettysburg pulled away, closing out by scoring another three points. The final score was 52-44.
This game ended a four-game winning streak for the team.
“It was a slight momentum killer, but we are going to come out stronger because of it,” Howie said.
The Blue Jays are in action again against the Muhlenberg College Mules on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 4:00 p.m. in the Goldfarb Gymnasium.
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