Last Saturday the Lawrence University women’s basketball team (1-20, 1-15 MWC) came up short against rival Beloit College (5-16, 2-14) at home in Alexander Gymnasium. A contest that Lawrence never led, the loss to Beloit was the 14th in a row suffered by the last-place Vikings.
At their last meeting on Jan. 7 in Beloit, Lawrence jumped out to a promising 13-point lead in the first half only to allow Beloit to rally to post a 71-64 conference win. Despite looking to split the season series, Lawrence couldn’t prevent Beloit from dominating the second half when they took a nine-point lead not even two minutes in. Lawrence did make things interesting after junior guard, Cathy Kaye knocked down two consecutive three-pointers to bring the score to 38-35 with a little more than 17 minutes left to play.
Powered by standouts Kandace Fox, who finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, and Faith Jones with 16 points, the Buccaneers responded quickly by pushing the lead back to double digits. Lawrence only came within 10 points once more after a made jump shot by Amber Lisowe and a layup from Alex Deshler at the 10:42 mark.
From then on out it was the Beloit show, as the Buccaneers went on a crushing 9-0 scoring run. After a made free throw shot with 5:28 to play, Beloit kicked the lead to 21. From that point, the Vikings never drew any closer than 14.
The team returns home this Saturday against a Midwestern Conference leading St. Norbert’s team. In their last matchup against St. Norbert’s, (18-4, 16-1) the Green Knights cruised to an 85-49 victory at Schuldes Sports Center in DePere, Wisc. The Vikings look to end their disappointing season on a very high note with an upset against a very good conference rival.