By Mel Barracato, Staff Writer
Head coach Jim Reed earned his 200th career win as the Susquehanna Women’s basketball team blew past Goucher with a 63–43 victory at home on Saturday, Jan. 26.
Reed achieved the milestone after 18 seasons of coaching women’s collegiate basketball between his career at Wilkes University and Susquehanna, where he has been the coach since 2005.
Susquehanna started out the first half strong with seven different players scoring a total of 27 points at the end of the half. Freshman guard Sadie Comfort scored six of her nine points in the first half and helped the River Hawks start a run to finish the first quarter leading 21–9.
Susquehanna struggled in the second half as their shots stopped falling for several minutes, allowing the Gophers to come back into the game. Goucher won the second quarter 11–6 as they narrowed their deficit to only seven points at the end of the first half.
Susquehanna came out stronger to start the second half, but the Gophers managed to outscore the River Hawks in the third quarter 14–12. Sophomore guard Nevin Hoenninger added her first points of the game in the form of a three-pointer with less than a minute to go to push the River Hawks to their biggest lead of the game at 12 points ahead. Seconds later, Goucher countered with a three-pointer of their own to cut the River Hawk lead to nine points.
The River Hawks dominated the fourth quarter and posted an overall 66.7% shooting percentage from the field. They outscored Goucher 22–11 in the last 10 minutes of the game and eight different players contributed to the 36 total points scored in the second half.
Sophomore center Madi Welliver scored nine of her 11 points in the second half, while freshman guard Amanda Lemire added seven of her 11 total points. Freshman forward Olivia Brandt led all Susquehanna scoring with 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Sophomore Erin McQuillen led with 13 rebounds and had four points and three steals.
Susquehanna also fell to conference-foe Scranton on Wednesday, Jan. 30.
The win on Saturday and loss on Wednesday improves the River Hawks record to 6–13 and 3–6 in the Landmark Conference. They will return to action on Saturday, Feb. 2 against conference-foe Elizabethtown at 2 p.m.
