Box Score

The New York University women's basketball team saw its five-game winning streak snapped Sunday with a 63-53 loss to Washington University in a battle of University Athletic Association (UAA) and nationally ranked powers before 763 at the Jerome S. Coles Sports Center in Manhattan.

Ranked #8 in the USA Today ESPN Division III Coaches' Poll and #10 by D3Hoops.com, NYU (16-2, 5-2 UAA) dropped out of first place in the UAA standings, while the Bears (14-4, 6-1 UAA), tied for #20 in the USA Today ESPN Poll and #24 in the D3Hoops.com Top 25, remained in a first-place tie with the University of Rochester, rated #5 by D3Hoops.com and #6 by USA Today ESPN.  Both of the Violets' losses have come against the UAA frontrunners.

Jessica McEntee led NYU with 16 points and nine rebounds, while Megan Fox grabbed a career-high-tying 12 boards.  Kathryn Berger paced the Bears with 11 points.

In a game that saw both team struggle to find any offensive flow -- the Violets shot 31.5% (17-for-54), while the Bears lagged slightly behind at 30.9% (21-for-68) -- Washington used a 13-0 run spanning both halves to take a 32-20 lead.  However, the trio of McEntee, Jen Hum-Traverso (9 points) and Gena Brown each canned three-pointers during a 13-3 outburst that closed the gap to 35-33 with 13:29 remaining.

From there, the Violets kept it a one-possession game for the next seven minutes until Janice Evans converted a pair of low-post moves to start a 7-0 surge that enabled the Bears to claim a 52-42 cushion with 2:55 remaining.  NYU never got any closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Washington owned a 48-45 rebounding edge, but grabbed 20 offensive boards.  In addition, the Bears converted 19 Violet turnovers into 20 points, while NYU turned its rival over nine times and tallied just four points off the miscues.

"We didn't do the intangibles well -- their offensive rebounding, our transition defense was poor and our lack of mental focus was disappointing," NYU interim head coach Stefano Trompeo said.

In addition, Washington ultimately answered each NYU run with a bigger spurt of its own.  The Violets led 8-2 at the outset, but overcame that with a 12-0 surge.  When NYU scored 12 of the next 15 points to go ahead 20-19 just 4:37 before the break, the Bears got seven points from Jill Brandt (9 points) while scoring the last nine points of the second half -- and the first four of the second period.

During the opening period, Washington hit just 29.4% (10-for-34) of its shots while holding NYU to 20.0% (6-for-30) shooting.  However, the Bears owned an 8-1 advantage in points off turnovers and a 15-6 lead in bench points.  Additionally, Washington shot 7-for-9 (77.8%) from the foul line while NYU hit just six of its 13 attempts (46.2%).

Janice Evans finished nine points and 11 boards, including six offensive caroms, for Washington.  Kelsey Robb also finished with nine points.

For NYU, Emily Foshag contributed seven points and four assists.

NYU and Washington will stage a rematch Friday night, Feb. 6, at the WU Fieldhouse in St. Louis.  Tip-off time is slated for 8 p.m. Central Standard Time.