Women’s basketball drops decisions to Capital, Muskingum

The Carnegie Mellon women’s basketball team opened up season play at Skibo Gymnasium for the second annual Radisson University Athletic Association (UAA)/Ohio Athletic Conference with disappointing results, dropping decisions to the visiting Capital University Crusaders, 53–36, Friday and the Muskingum College Muskies, 56–46, Saturday. The losses move the Tartans’ record to 0–2.

The Crusaders started the game with a 4–0 lead over the Tartans, soon increasing that edge to 10 in the middle of the first period. In an attempt to rally, senior Rachelle Roll came up big for the Tartans, tallying seven points and four steals just before the half. One of those steals was redistributed to teammate junior Paige Williamson, who then converted a jumper into points on the Carnegie Mellon scoreboard to slightly chop the Capital advantage down to six. However, that burst of hope soon dwindled when the Crusaders continued to put away buckets and create a double-digit edge over the Tartans to walk into the locker room with a 30–18 score at halftime.

Coming out rejuvenated, senior guard Colleen Light recorded seven of her nine points of the game in the second half alone. Roll concluded her scoring spree with six buckets and nine total points. The unfortunate result appeared to refocus the Tartans as they started their second game of the weekend.

The game started strongly for the Tartans and they shot ahead 21–16. Williamson started the lead with a jump shot 10:33 into the game. Senior guards Stacie Aleski and Light teamed up, with Aleski making a great pass to Light who was able to snatch the opportunity at a baseline jumper to score her sixth point of the game. This jump shot came after the Muskies scored on two free throws.

Early in the second half, the score had increased to 25–21 but the Tartan lead had dropped to four points. Muskingum’s Tiffany Youel was fouled on a three-point attempt and made all three free throws, which eventually led to the Muskies’ seven-point run, holding off the Tartans at 25. The streak put the score at 28–25 to push the Muskies ahead by three.

A lay-up made by sophomore Jessica Buanovsky gave Carnegie Mellon its last lead of the game as she helped to boost the score to 29–28 with only 13:38 left in the game. At this point, Muskingum took advantage of the five straight trips down the floor made by Carnegie Mellon and managed to tack on eight more points to their score. Youel worked hard for the Muskies as she claimed 10 of the team’s next 12 points to keep the Muskies at an eight-point lead in the second half. Youel shot 68.2 percent.

Light led the Tartan team with a high of 17 points, while Roll was able to claim 10 rebounds. The Muskies were headed up by Youel’s 17 points while Jessica McKenzie added a total of 16 points. First-year Suzanne Nichols contributed in 10 points and a team-high of seven rebounds.

The Tartans travel to La Roche College Wednesday at 6 p.m. for its next out-of-conference game.