The Maroon women’s basketball team has continued its exceptional run, extending its win streak to 10 games and going 2–0 in its first UAA games. It continues conference play this weekend, heading to Carnegie Mellon University and Case Western University for the weekend.
Over the weekend, the South Siders were once again boosted by big performances from multiple players. Against NYU, second-years Mia Farrell and Taylor Lake scored 19 and 17 points, respectively. Third-year Olariche Obi earned yet another double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. First-year Marissa Igunbor proved to be up to the challenge, scoring 12 points. Fourth-year Elizabeth Nye led the team with five assists. Despite the Violets opening with a 10–0 run, the Maroons stayed steady to get a definitive 83–59 win.
The game against Brandeis was definitely more of a challenge for the Maroons, but once again multiple players stepped up to get the win. The game was a back-and-forth affair, as each quarter was basically a different story. In the first quarter, the Maroons earned a 12-point lead at one time thanks to scoring from Farrell, Igunbor, and Obi. That lead wasted away to just one point right before the end of the half, but Obi made a big play to put them up by three. The Maroons continued to barely hang onto their lead in the third quarter, thanks to key three-pointers by second-year Miranda Burt. A fiery fourth quarter from Lake in which she scored 10 points changed the course of the game and allowed the Maroons to finally put it away. Overall, Lake scored 16 points, followed by Obi with her seventh double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds, and Burt with 14 points.
Setting specific goals has been critical to the Maroon’s success. According to Lake, “It’s definitely easy to get caught up in the flow of conference play week after week, but I think we do a good job of holding each other accountable each week coming in to practice. We make sure to set a goal at the beginning of every week to keep us focused on winning the weekend and not looking past any opponent. By having a goal in mind, it gives us something to work towards and keeps all of our attention on what we can do to achieve it.”
The Maroons are once again favored in their games this weekend, as neither Carnegie nor Case Western are ranked nationally and Case Western has a losing record in the UAA. Additionally, Case’s overall record is losing as well. The Maroons, however, do not just focus on winning. Rather, they use games to focus on achieving quantifiable goals, as Lake described it, for every game that will help them improve in ways that they know will make them better as a team.
