“This was a great college basketball game, unfortunately we were on the losing end of it,” said WU head coach Nancy Fahey. “Hope did a nice job in the first half getting out and running and knocking down three’s. I was proud that our team maintained its composure and kept coming back.”
Trailing 88-82 with 2:08 remaining, junior Rebecca Parker hit a 15-foot jumper from the corner and senior Kelly Manning added a fast-break lay-up to trim the lead to 88-86 with 1:18 left.
Manning had a chance to give the Bears the lead with 42 seconds left, but her three-pointer from the corner was off the mark. Hope’s Bria Ebels added a bank shot from 10 feet out to seal the victory for the Flying Dutch. Ebels finished with 27 points and eight assists, while Jordyn Boles added 18 points and nine assists.
Manning led the Bears with 31 points as she moved into third place on the WU single-season scoring list with 560 points. She finished her career scoring with 1,580 points, the third most in school history. Parker finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds as she notched her fifth double-double of the season. Senior Danielle Beehler had 12 points and eight rebounds in the loss, and moved into eighth place on the all-time list with 582 boards. Junior Sarah Schell added 10 assists, moving into second place all-time on the career list with 317.
Hope, who entered the game ranked 11th in Division III in scoring average (76.9 ppg), got out into transition early in the game and built a 16-7 lead. The Flying Dutch were red hot from the field hitting 13 of their first 15 shots for the game, including 5-of-6 from three-point range, building their largest lead of the game at 34-15 with 11:15 left.
Manning got the Bears back into the game as she scored nine straight points to trim the lead to 43-35. The Bears extended the run to 18-2 as senior Katie Benson hit back-to-back jump shots to knot the score at 43-43 with 2:52 remaining. The Flying Dutch ended the half with a 12-2 run to take a 55-45 lead to the locker room.
“That comeback took a lot out of us, but we still had a lot to offer,” Manning said. “We had our opportunities, but they pulled ahead in the end.”
Hope shot 60.6 percent (20-33) from the field in the first half, including 7-of-13 (53.8 percent) from three-point range. Manning led the Bears with 18 points in the first half, while Parker had 10.
Washington U.’s defense put the clamps on the Flying Dutch’s offense as they held them without a field goal for 6:05 midway through the second half. Trailing 59-47, the Bears scored the next 10 points to trim the lead to 59-57. A three-point play by freshman Shanna-Lei Dacanay extended the run to 13-0 as the Bears took their first lead of the game at 60-59.