the Informer

Adam Manison

Women’s basketball is South Bend bound to take on Notre Dame in the WNIT semifinals after their Long Island University Blackbird take-down, 54-45, in the Preseason WNIT quarterfinals at home Sunday afternoon in the Chase Arena at the Reich Family Pavillion.

A double-double performance by Hawk junior forward Ruthanne Doherty in 18 points and 12 rebounds marked Hartford’s first achievement of such for the year and her second game in a row to lead her team in scoring in accordance with three assists and a team-high four steals.

Fellow classmate Daphne Elliot contributed four steals as well and finished second for the Hawks in scoring with nine points and off the bench, Sophomore Alyssa Englert assisted her Hawks a team high five times while also adding eight points.

The strict man-to-man defensive pressure featured by Hartford and switch from full-court pressure to a half-court trap by LIU forced a poor shooting game with the Hawks shooting 32.2 percent for the game and the Blackbirds shooting 33.3 percent for the game.

Hartford came out on top the steal and turnover stats with 12 and 19, respectively, compared to LIU’s nine steals and 27 turnovers.

Following suit of their familiar rebounding ability, Hartford’s 39 boards were outnumbered by LIU’s 44.

Neither team was able to convert more than 1/3 of their shots as the Hawks went 19-59 from the floor and LIU went 19-57 from the floor.

Body knocking collisions and high energy offense characterized the intense second half, which could be followed by the crowds reactions to the multiple scoring runs that consisted of Hartford leads of LIU going from 27-17 to 27-23 to 41-29 to 43-40 to the final, all preceded by a slow start to the Hawks’ first half for the second game in a row.

Freshman Amber Bepko scored for the Hawks first with a strong spin move down the baseline for a lay-up and the foul.

Rizzotti’s defense went on to close out the first half having limited the Blackbirds to four points in the remaing 12 minutes.

Had this not been the case, Hartford may have been worse off than they were considering LIU, led by Ashley Palmer who had a double double of her own with 18 points and 10 rebounds, had gotten off to a 9-0 lead before then until Hartford made a 7-0 run to make the game close with just over 10 mins to go in the first.

Thurs. Nov. 17 marks Hartford’s date with the No. 2 team to start the season in both national polls with tip off at 7 p.m.