Williams Women's Basketball Earns Comeback Win over Conn College

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The Williams College women’s basketball team overcame a double-digit, third-quarter deficit Sunday en route to a 64-59 victory over the nationally ranked Connecticut College Camels.
 
Williams (17-5/5-3 NESCAC) was led in scoring by sophomore Amanni Fernandez who racked up 27 points and four assists in the win, but it was the senior duo of captains Katie Litman and Oge Uwanaka, playing in their final regular season home game, that sparked the Ephs today. Connecticut sophomore Mairead Hynes showed why she is the Camels’ leading scorer, recording 20 points on 8-10 shooting from the field, though her efforts fell just short.
 
The Camels (16-5, 5-3) controlled play in the early going, jumping out to a 10-4 lead at the 6:44 mark in the first quarter after senior Willa McKinley hit her first of three three point shots. Junior Liz Malman chipped in six of her eleven points as part of a smooth offensive performance for the Camels that yielded a 19-12 lead at the end of the period. Turnovers continued to plague the Ephs as they have all season, however they did tally four blocks in the quarter, three of them coming off the hands of either Litman or Uwanaka. Litman also led Williams in scoring in the first, making both of her attempts from the field for four points.
 
Williams was able to gain some ground in the second quarter behind Fernandez, who controlled the game beautifully from the point guard position. There was a stretch of nine straight Eph points that Fernandez either scored or recorded an assist on, the lone assist coming when junior Devon Caveney connected on the only made three point attempt in 11 tries for the Ephs in the first half. While Williams started to establish a rhythm on offense, their defense forced Conn out of the flow they had been in in the first, holding the Camels to ten points while forcing six turnovers in the second quarter while Williams committed just two turnovers in the same timespan.
 
Conn opened the second half on a 9-3 run capped off by a Malman three pointer that forced Williams head coach Pat Manning to use one of her full timeouts. Williams went on to close the third quarter on a long run of their own, outscoring the Camels 14-5 over the final 7:24 of the period. The run started when Caveney found the net on another three point attempt, followed closely by a three from Fernandez that cut the Connecticut back to four. McKinley chose that moment to knock down her second three of the ball game, only to initiate a response in the form of an Uwanaka made jump shot and another Fernandez three that brought Williams within one to start the fourth quarter.
 
The teams went back and forth in the final quarter, with players from both teams making big plays when it counted the most. Williams first pulled level with the Camels with seven minutes to play when Fernandez nailed yet another three pointer to even up the score at 49 apiece. A three from Caveney three minutes later gave the Ephs the lead, however McKinley responded with a three of her own that knotted the game again. Free throw shooting proved to be the difference in the game down the stretch when Malman fouled Fernandez to put her at the line and Williams into the bonus. Fernandez made four free throws in the closing minutes of the game while Uwanaka connected on two of four attempts, scoring the final points in her final regular season game in Chandler Gymnasium.
 
Litman and Uwanaka scored the first two baskets for Williams in the fourth quarter to get things going on the offensive end, however it was their defense that helped Williams seal the deal down the stretch. The duo combined for four steals and two blocks over the final ten minutes. The turnover margin again proved to be a critical indicator of which team had the upper hand, and in the case of the fourth quarter it was Williams who won the turnover battle by only committing one as opposed to the six committed by Connecticut.
 
Head coach Pat Manning was thoroughly pleased with her team’s performance as well as their ability to respond to adversity, saying, “We’ve been down late in pretty much every NESCAC game up to this point, against Middlebury, Trinity, and two nights ago against Wesleyan. Everybody keeps their composure well and that’s a credit to our seniors but also to Amanni, who is running the show out there. When [Amanni] doesn’t panic, that keeps everybody else steady.”
 
Williams will go on the road next weekend to close out their regular season schedule, playing games against Tufts and Bates that will have a huge impact on potential seeding for the NESCAC tournament. Williams currently sits in a three-way tie for fourth along with Colby and Conn, who are all just one game behind Bowdoin for the third seed. A matchup with 8th-ranked and NESCAC leading Tufts on Friday will be the first of their two games. In the words of Manning, “Everything depends on next weekend.”
 
MEN'S BASKETBALL
NEW LONDON, Conn. -- Clutch free throw shooting down the stretch helped the Williams College men's basketball team (14-8) secure a 70-67 victory over the Connecticut College Camels on Sunday.
 
Junior swingman Daniel Aronowitz stole the show in the second half to help mount a comeback, after Williams (14-8, 4-4 NESCAC) trailed by eight at the half. 
 
With a top four seed in the conference tournament basically out of the reach for teams, both the Ephs and the Camels (12-10, 3-5) were playing mostly to gain some momentum heading into the final weekend of NESCAC regular season play.
 
Aronowitz led the Ephs with 27 points and 9 rebounds. Freshman James Heskett 14 points on 4-8 from three-point range.
 
Williams next plays Tufts on Friday.
 
WOMEN'S SQUASH
HARTFORD, Conn. – The Williams women's squas team fell to fifth-ranked Trinity Sunday in the finals of the NESCAC tournament.
 
The match followed the five-court system, with Alyssa Ritchie (No. 10), co-captain Lily Grant (No. 8), Ellen Coombe (No. 6), Ananya Mahalingam-Dhingra (No. 4), and Hayley Parsons (No. 2) on court first. Ritchie, Coombe, Mahalingam-Dhingra, and Parsons all fell in three well-fought games, with Parsons having particularly close 11-8 scores in the second and third games. Grant had an excellent match, taking her opponent to five games, although she eventually fell in a hard-fought fifth game.
 
Next on court were Caroline Hogan (No. 9), Charlotte Walsh (No. 7), Esther Baek (No. 5), co-captain Nicole Feshbach (No. 3), and Nicole Friedman (No. 1). Although all five players also fell in three games, they followed the example of their teammates, fought hard for every point, and proved that the Ephs deserved to be in the finals of the tournament.
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Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
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