After two straight wins, the women’s basketball saw their season take a turn for the worse this past week. With only seven players dressed, Colgate suffered two straight drubbings at the hands of Lehigh and Bucknell. Against Lehigh last Tuesday night, the Raiders found themselves down early, as the Hawks jumped out to a 22-5 lead in the first six minutes of play. Lehigh never looked back winning by a final score of 68-50. The game was a sloppy one for the Raiders, who committed 22 turnovers. Lehigh took full advantage of Colgate’s miscues, scoring 20 of their points off turnovers. Lehigh had 16 turnovers of their own, but Colgate was unable to take advantage of Lehigh’s mistakes, scoring just six points off turnovers. Sophomore guard Gretchen Polinski had another strong performance for Colgate, leading the way with 17 points and eight rebounds.

The Bucknell game on Saturday featured the same trends, but against the top team in the Patriot League the results were even worse for the Raiders. It looked as if a vampire had come and drained the life out of the Raider’s offense, as they went without a point for the first 14:56 of the game. In that time Bucknell jumped out to a 27-0 lead. The Bison stampeded through the rest of the game, doubling up the Raiders by a score of 64-32. As with the Lehigh game, turnovers plagued the team. Colgate committed 21 turnovers, and had just one scorer in double figures, first-year guard TaHara Williams with 10 points. Unfortunately for Colgate, she also had 10 turnovers; not the kind of double-double you like to see.

Having only two substitutes has certainly played a big role in Colgate’s recent woes.

“We’ve had a lot of good shots, but we’ve been missing them. That’s probably due in large part to tired legs. If our players had gotten a sub when they needed one, more of those shots would have gone in,” Head Coach Kristen Hughes said.

Junior guard Shevorne Martin in particular has been a big loss for the Raiders. Colgate’s leader in assists has missed the last two games with a concussion and is currently day-to-day.

“Having Shevy (Martin) out of the lineup is huge because she’s our second ball handler, so a lot of pressure has been put on TaHara Williams,” Coach Hughes said. It’s hard to execute on offense when most of your ball handlers are in street clothes.”

Hopefully Colgate can regain some health and momentum going into the final two games of the year. The regular season finale is this Saturday at 4:30 at home against Navy.