The women’s basketball team dropped another Patriot League game to Army, 74-54 last Saturday at Cotterell Court. Georgia Gier, Krista Moser and Evan Librizzi represented the class of 2011 well by scoring nine points apiece. Army guards Alex McGuire (16 points) and Cara Enright (19 points) led Army’s offensive surge, and the former guard supplemented her scoring output with seven rebounds.

Very few points were scored during the first five minutes, and the lead passed from one squad to the other. Colgate managed to grab an early 10-9 lead thanks to junior Gretchen Polinski’s sharp shooting. But the turning point of the game came at that moment, as the Black Knights increased the pace and went on an 18-9 run to open a gap that would never be closed. Army effectively managed to kill the Raiders’ attacks in the first half and did not miss too many opportunities to score. However, led by sophomore Laura Grimm, Colgate mounted a small comeback and closed within seven points of Army at halftime, 33-26.

The second half was marked by the Raiders’ inconsistent play, which is now turning into the team’s core problem. Colgate lacked creativity in its attacks and aggressiveness in its defensive efforts. The Black Knights immediately took advantage and grabbed an insurmountable 24-point lead by applying greater defensive pressure. Although the Raiders made yet another attempt to reverse the game, Colgate only managed to cut the lead to 15 points.

The key to this game was Army’s uncanny ability to score points on turnovers, as they managed to get 26 points off Colgate’s mistakes. However, all is not lost in the box score, for the statistics also show a tremendous improvement in Colgate’s offensive performance. The Raiders shot 39.6 percent from the floor (45.8 percent in the second half), which is much better than the low-thirties percentages they had been producing so far. Head Coach Pam Bass reflected on that improvement.

“We did a great job in the first half,” she said. “I really saw some growth in us.”

Coverage of last night’s home game against Lafayette can be found in next week’s issue. Colgate will now go on the road to face American on Saturday and Lehigh on Wednesday.