LATROBE — Winning last year’s PAC women’s basketball championship created a confident foundation for the returning players at Washington & Jefferson.
That confidence traveled with the Presidents to Robert S. Carey Center for Saturday’s conference tournament final against top-seeded Saint Vincent despite the Bearcats sweeping the regular season series. It also didn’t waver as W&J headed to the locker room at halftime trailing by a point after fouling Makenna Maier on a desperation 3-point attempt just before the buzzer.
Rather than let Saint Vincent seize momentum and win a fourth PAC title in eight years, W&J clamped down defensively and got things going on offense, turning a back-and-forth game into a 64-43 victory and a spot in the NCAA Division III Tournament.
“We have a lot of experience, and we knew had to take it quarter by quarter,” W&J senior guard Stellanie Loutsion said. “We felt we were playing harder than they were, and that would pay off in the end.”
Loutsion kept W&J (23-6) in the game during the first half. Her 12 points, two steals and perfect free-throw shooting helped offset the team’s early struggles from the floor.
Maier, a senior and the leading 3-point shooter in the PAC, had no such issues.
She went 3 for 4 from 3 during the first half, when she scored 13 of her team-high 20 points. And after she was fouled on a 25-foot attempt at the end of the second quarter, Maier made 2 of 3 free throws for a 29-28 lead.
It was the type of play that can change momentum, particularly at home.
“In championship games, I never buy into momentum,” first-year Saint Vincent coach Kam Gissendanner said. “At any given moment, the momentum can shift back the other way. I don’t think we got too high off the way things ended in the first half.”
W&J junior center Katie Kovalchick made sure Saint Vincent (21-7) couldn’t capitalize in the third quarter as she scored seven consecutive points to give the Presidents a 35-29 lead.
Kovalchick finished with a game-high 22 points and made all three of her 3-point attempts to go with six rebounds and three steals. Her outburst was all W&J needed to take over the game, and it equaled Saint Vincent’s output during the third quarter. The Bearcats managed only 14 points after halftime.
“I just don’t think we executed as well as we could have, and a few of our shots weren’t the best we could have taken,” Maier said. “We weren’t making attacking plays, and I think we maybe were rushing a little bit.”
Once it saw the opening, W&J was in a hurry to win back-to-back PAC championships for the first time during Jina DeRubbo’s 22 years as coach.
Loutsion finished with 17 points, Kovalchick led the way in the third quarter and leading scorer Riley DeRubbo took over during the fourth quarter, scoring 11 of her 14 points after halftime.
“Our girls were loose coming in. There’s a big difference being the No. 2 seed compared to being the No. 1 seed like (Saint Vincent),” Jina DeRubbo said. “They’ve done everything right all year and deserved everything they got, but there’s a level of stress that comes with the top seed. You don’t want to screw anything up. I know. We’ve been there, and our girls wanted to be here in this situation.”