Rensselaer got solid play from their two top starters and 20 points from their bench, but William Smith’s Laura Hadwin dominated the game with her 34-point performance, carrying the Herons past the Red Hawks with a 81-75 score in Friday evening’s UCAA semifinal match.
Both teams shot very well in the first half—RPI’s 50 percent mark from the field was eclipsed by William Smith’s 54.8 shooting percentage, but the Red Hawks got to the line a few more times, coming out of the half ahead by the slimmest of margins, 40-39.
The game continued to be fairly even in the second half, but William Smith gained a small advantage near the end of the game and protected it with accurate foul shooting to finish off RPI.
The telling factor in the game turned out to be penetration—the Herons scored twice as many points in the paint as the Red Hawks, who were often forced to take outside shots. Another key point was the pace of the match—in the last contest between these two teams, RPI smoked William Smith out of the gate, starting the game with a 20-6 run based largely on a very up-tempo offense that caught the Herons off guard. In stark contrast to that match, the Red Hawks got zero points off of fast breaks on Friday night.
The season, however, is not over for RPI. The Red Hawks have received an invitation to the four-team ECAC tournament. Though Rensselaer is the top seed, the conference decided to hold the games on the campus of second-seeded Rochester, since all three of the other teams are in western New York. The Red Hawks will play No. 4 St. John Fisher at noon on Saturday. The other semifinal match features Rochester against William Smith, who lost to St. Lawrence in the UCAA final. The victors in these two matches will play for the ECAC championship on Sunday at 1 pm.
