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JARED HILL
Special to The Leader
Last weekend at Penn State Behrend, the Fredonia women’s basketball team proved its mettle after pushing its way through two tough victories en route to a championship weekend at the Penn State Behrend Tip-Off Tournament.
The team’s run started Friday against the hosting Grove City Wolverines. After being down 22-13 at the end of the first quarter, the Blue Devils retained their composure and fought back to tie the game at halftime at 36.
Later, the Wolverines looked to pull away, up 68-60 with 4:06 left to play, but Fredonia pulled it together and came back. After trading shots, Blue Devil sophomore forward Emily Lasher hit a layup in the final minute of the game, bringing the Blue Devils to within one point at 72-71.
The next possession, Grove City’s Jackie Stewart was fouled and sent to the line. She missed both of her free throws.
On Fredonia’s next possession, senior forward Sabrina Macaulay drove hard to the basket, missing the shot. But coming up with the rebound was freshman center Jenna Einink. She went for the put-back, was fouled and was sent to the line. She hit the game-winning free throws, sending the Blue Devils to the championship game on Saturday.
Einink finished the game with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Macaulay led the team in scoring with 22.
On Saturday the Blue Devils were challenged by the Hiram Terriers in a thrilling championship bout that went into overtime.
Much like the first game, Fredonia had to comeback from being behind with a score of 33-20 at the half. The Blue Devils’ response was an explosive third quarter in which they outscored Hiram 29 to 13.
“We had high intensity both on and off the court,” recalls junior guard Alexis Cheatham. “We started getting back to our game.”
Now only down one at the start of the fourth quarter, the Blue Devils had the Penn State Behrend Tip-Off Tournament title in its sight. However, it would not come easy. In a one-possession game late in the fourth quarter, Cheatham hit a dagger from three-point land tying the game up, 65-65, with 1:14 left in the game. This was the final field goal made in regulations, so the game went into overtime.
The game-winning basket came with 1:45 left in OT via a layup by Macaulay putting Fredonia up one. Cheatham hit a free throw for some added insurance, and the Blue Devils were crowned the champions over Grove City — the final score 70-68.
Freshman forward Einink put in another day of work adding 11 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks. Einink was named the tournament MVP; she gave all the credit to her teammates.
“I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. Their confidence in me helped me feel comfortable in playing my first college games,” said Einink.
“It was awesome to finally come out with a tourney victory,” said Cheatham, “and to come back from being 13 down on a good team just let’s everyone know we won’t give up and how special this team is.”
Their 2-0 run ended last Tuesday in a 62-51 home loss versus undefeated Nazareth.
“We were unable to overcome very poor shooting in the first half against Nazareth,” said Head Coach Linda Hill-Macdonald.
Fredonia only shot .31 percent from the field Tuesday. The previous two games, they shot at least over .37 percent.
“This team continues to search for its identity, but shows flashes of excellent play,” said Hill-Macdonald, “we will continue to work on consistency as we prepare for three games next week.”
Those next three games are all home games and will be played against Alfred University, Oswego and Cortland.