The 11-game win streak of the College's women's basketball team came to a halt last Tuesday night when the visiting Red Devils of Dickinson College handed them their first loss since Dec. 1 by a score of 64-55.
With the win, the Red Devils (12-1) extended their winning streak to eight games. The Lions dropped to 12-3 on the season.
"(Dickinson) played how we would like to play," head coach Dawn Henderson said. "They exposed some of the weaknesses I knew we had to work on."
The Lions opened up the game on a positive note with a 7-2 run, but that was the only time the Lions held the lead. The Red Devils responded with 10 unanswered points to give them a 12-7 lead.
Lions' sophomore forward Breanne Depken cut the margin to three (22-19) with a lay-up at 6:03 before Dickinson pulled away with an 8-0 run to close out the half and boast a 30-19 halftime lead, receiving 10 points off 12 Lions' first-half turnovers.
The Lions came out of the locker room after halftime on fire, with a 21-13 run to start off the second half to come within three (43-40) with 11:36 left. That would be the closest they would get, as the Red Devils responded with an 11-0 run to sport their biggest lead of the game, 54-40, at the 8:06 mark.
The Red Devils, who shot a blistering 60 percent from three-point range, limited the Lions to 25 percent shooting from the floor.
"We were passive on offense and we didn't defend particularly well," Henderson said.
It was a messy game, full of turnovers from both teams, but the Red Devils were able to capitalize on more of them, scoring 22 points off the Lions' 18 turnovers.
The scoring for the Lions was led by junior guard Tiara Simpkins with a season-high 18 points and four rebounds, followed by the efforts of senior tri-captain Theresa DiMedio, who added 13 points and eight rebounds. But Simpkins and DiMedio didn't have enough to overcome the full team effort put out by the Red Devils, who had three players in double digits and had points come from every player on the squad.
Red Devils' sophomore center Allyson Teatom led her team with a game-high of 19 points and 11 boards. Senior guard Megan Shelley contributed 11 points and two rebounds while freshman forward Laura Housel added 10 points and six boards.
Henderson looked at the game as a way to motivate the team to improve on their weaknesses.
"It's a non-conference game, so it doesn't hurt us in conference play," she said. "But it gets our attention the next couple of days in practice."
The Lions had been flying high after winning all of their games over winter break, including a 69-29 thrashing of Rutgers University-Newark.
Junior forward Erin Frank won New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Player of the Week honors for the week of Jan. 9. She averaged 12 points and seven rebounds in two games, including a double-double against Ramapo College.
The Lions' scheduled game last Saturday against conference rival William Paterson University was postponed until Jan. 24 due to the winter storm. Monday's scheduled game against Mount St. Mary College was cancelled.
The team will host a conference game tonight against Richard Stockton College at 8 p.m. They will travel to Kean University on Saturday for a 3 p.m. conference matchup.
"All conference games are so important," Henderson said. "We have a chance to separate ourselves from the rest of the crowd."
