The men’s and women’s basketball teams both traveled to Ohio last weekend to face the Kenyon Lords. The women came out on top 66-61 while the men topped the Lords 59-56.

The womens team had three players in double figures. Emma Pellicano, ’16, finished with 17 points, while Kendall Hoffman, ’15, added 14 points and Ifeyinwa Uwazie, ’16, scored 11 total points in the game.

The Gators started off the game with a 10-4 lead over the Lords in the first half. Kenyon fought back taking the lead in the beginning of the first half. The Lords increased their lead over the Gators to five points with seven minutes left in the half.
Kaitlyn Fromknecht, ’16, and Uwazie had back to back layups with no answer from the Lords. This decreased the lead to just one point putting the score at 27-26. Both teams exchanged buckets in the remainder of the first half. Despite a 3-point shot from Pellicano with four seconds left in the half the Lords took a three point lead going into the second half of the game.

“My teammates have definitely been supporting my offensive game and their hard work on offense and defense just makes it easier for me to score,” said Uwazie.

Coming into the second half the women were held down by the Lords with no score in the first two minutes of the game causing the Lords to hold a seven point lead. With sixteen minutes left in the second half the Gators went on an 8-2 run to cut the lead down to one point at 43-42 with fourteen minutes left in the game. Rachel Vigliotti, ’16, gave the Gators the lead back, but the team could only hold the two point lead for a short time after Keyon scored to take the lead again by three points. Vigliotti fought hard for the Gators once more putting them in the lead over Kenyon. The Lords answered back with a 3-pointer but with just under two minutes left Hoffman clutched a 3-point shot allowing the Gators to take the 62-61 lead over the Lords.

“We had really good team chemistry and energy that lead us to come together for the win,” said Pellicano.

The team was able to hold of the Lords for the remainder of the game with Uwazie and Pellicano combined their efforts to go 4-for-4 from the free throw line allowing them to gain the 66-61 victory over Kenyon.

“We came into that game with a clear goal of sweeping Kenyon and putting them behind us and I feel that was an important part of our mental game which transferred onto the court our last few minutes of play. We came out with a great win on the road,” said Uwazie.

The women’s basketball team is ranked fourth in the conference.

After losing in overtime in their last meeting, Allegheny’s 59-56 victory pushed them to 7-5 in conference play and maintained their fourth place ranking in the conference.

This Gators pulled off a close win with Josh Valentic, ’15, leading the team in points scoring a total of 15 points in the game, followed by Evan Schweitzer, ’16, with nine points and Dante Wallette, ’18, with a career high of eight points.

“Kenyon is always a tough game for us in the conference,” Valentic said. “It was nice to get a win and play so well on the defensive end. Guys made clutch plays for us especially in the 2nd half.”

Both the Lords and the Gators had a weak offensive performance at the start of the game, combined both teams had eight field goals in the first eleven minutes. Wallette broke the trend with a 3-point shot followed by a free throw from Chris Koryak, ‘16. This put the Gators in the lead over Kenyon at 14-11 in the beginning of the first half. Kenyon held off the Gators as they were unable to score for four minutes allowing the Lords to take an 18-14 lead over the men with only five minutes left in the first half.

Wallette revived the team with a jumper which kicked off a 9-2 run from the Gators followed by a 3-point shot from Koryak and topped off with a layup from Valentic allowing the Gators to take a three point lead over Kenyon with three minutes left in the first half. Kenyon cut the lead back down to one point until Valentic scored at the buzzer, sending the Gators into the locker room with a three point advantage over the Lords.

Kenyon returned to the court strong in the second half scoring the first eight straight points. Allegheny answered back to Kenyon’s early run with a corner 3-point shot from Schweitzer which decreased the gap at 36-35 with 16 minutes left in the game.

“I’m more confident now. I struggled before that offensively. I listened to my teammates and coach, this caused me to score more than I usually do,” said Schweitzer.

Leslie-Paul Jamerson, ’15, scored to give Allegheny a one point lead over Kenyon with fifteen minutes left in the game. Schweitzer clutched the 3-point shot increasing the lead by four points.Gabe Seidman, ’15, scored four points followed by a 3-point play the Gators went on a 13-0 run to make the score 44-36 with fourteen minutes left. Wallette scored a 3-followed by a jumper from Valentic allowing Allegheny to get their largest lead of the night.

Kenyon answered back to the Gators by going on a 14-3 run to eventually tie the score at 55 with just three minutes left in the game. Under pressure, the Gators were 0-for-7 from the field until Valentic showed up at the free throw line giving the Gators a two point lead over Kenyon. The Lords made one shot from the free throw line thinning the lead to just one point but, down to the wire, the Lords failed to overcome the Gators who closed the game out with Connor Macomber, ‘16, at the line making both attempts putting the final score at 59-56.

The victory over Kenyon put the Gators standing strong as fourth in the conference.