The New York University women's basketball team, ranked #22 by both
D3hoops.com and
USA Today, suffered a tough loss to #9/8 Washington University-St. Louis, 66-53, on Sunday afternoon, February 21, in its home season finale. The game was the final event ever at the Jerome S. Coles Sports Center in Manhattan, as the building will now be officially decommissioned.
Sunday was also Senior Day for NYU, as the Violets honored their four graduating players –
Megan Dawe,
Maya Wasowicz,
Riley Wurtz, and
Carolyn Hennecken.
"It's been an amazing four years, Dawe said. "I'm so thankful that Coach (Lauren Hall Gregory) came on before I got here. It's just been an unbelievable experience."
NYU's record fell to 17-7, including a 6-7 mark in the University Athletic Association (UAA). The Bears improved to 20-4 and maintained their first-place lead in the UAA at 11-2.
WashU outscored NYU by identical 17-10 margins in the first and second quarters and entered the half with a 34-20 lead.
The Violets came back strong to start the third quarter with a 9-3 run and trimmed the Bears' lead to eight at 39-31 with 4:51 left in the period. WashU immediately countered with a 10-0 run of its own to jump out to an 18-point lead, 49-31, with 1:48 remaining in the quarter, its largest advantage of the contest.
Beginning with a pair of Wasowicz free throws and an
Amy Harioka three at the end of the third quarter, NYU was able to stretch out a 15-4 run between the third and beginning of the fourth to get back to within seven at 53-46 with 4:53 remaining.
From that point on, the Bears closed out the contest on a 14-7 run to come away with the 13-point victory.
"You have to credit Wash U. They hit some tough shots just when they needed to," said Hall-Gregory. "To beat a team like that you have to play a perfect game, and unfortunately we played a really good game for 32 minutes but we couldn't come up with it for 40.
HIGHLIGHTS:-
Drew Cabral scored the final points at the Coles Center on a basket with three secopnds left in the game.
- Dawe led the Violets with 17 points and a game-best nine rebounds.
- Harioka finished as NYU's second-leading scorer at 13 points. She was 3-of-5 from long range.
-
Kaitlyn Read chipped in 11 points, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
- Jordan Thompson (23 points, three assists) and Zoe Vernon (18 points, six rebounds) led WashU.
The Violets will return to action for their regular-season finale on Saturday, February 27, in Waltham, MA. NYU and Brandeis University are scheduled to tipoff at 1:00 pm.
