This past weekend, the Case Western Reserve University Women’s Basketball team played two conference games on the road, dropping both games by close margins.

“I’m extremely proud of how the team has come together,” said third-year student and guard Jessica McCoy. “We’ve had our setbacks, but everyone is really beginning to click and find a way to contribute to the team. Our conference is incredibly competitive and I’m very proud of the fight we’ve shown during the first half of conference play.”

In the first game of the weekend, the Spartans traveled to Waltham, Massachusetts, to take on Brandeis. McCoy had a big game for the Spartans, putting up 21 points, while Laura Mummey was able to add 18 points and seven rebounds to the effort. The game would head to overtime, tied at 60 apiece. In overtime, the score went back and forth, until Brandeis was able to close it out and win 69-66.

“As a team, we’re working on maintaining aggressiveness throughout the game,” said McCoy. “This is key offensively, where we need to keep scoring and getting offensive boards.”

The Spartans turned the ball over seven more times than Brandeis, and they also lost the second chance point battle 20-9. They outshot Brandeis from the floor 46 percent to 25 percent, yet still could not come away with the victory. This loss brought the Spartans’ overall record to 6-11, with their conference record being 1-5.

Following this game, the ladies would hit the road again and head to New York City. There they would take on the number eight ranked New York University. NYU was just a bit better all game, winning each quarter by five, two, one and four, respectively. It all added up to an 82-70 victory for NYU.

This was not without a valiant effort by the Spartans, as Laura Mummey matched her career high with 24 points and also added five blocks. Kara Hageman was able to contribute 18 points and eight boards and Hillary Hellmann had 16 points, eight boards and six assists, a career-best.

The Spartans again outshot their opponents from the field and actually forced more turnovers.

“Our team is constantly striving to improve on the defensive end of the court,” said Mummey. “We’ve had the most success in the games in which we’ve played great defense, so that’s a huge focus going into the remainder of the season.”

However the Spartans lost the second chance point battle by seven points, which proved to be most of the difference. “Denying second chance points to other teams is huge,” said McCoy.

This second loss dropped the CWRU women’s record to 6-12. In University Athletic Association play, they are now 1-6.

Next up on the docket is Throwback Weekend. The ladies will play two games at Adelbert Gymnasium, wearing uniforms from Mather College to honor that institution. It will be a repeat of this weekend, with Brandeis coming in on Friday, Feb. 5, and NYU following on Sunday, Feb. 7.

“One of the greatest things about the UAA is having the opportunity to play each team in the league twice in such close proximity,” said Mummey. “We get to learn from the mistakes we made the first time around and have the chance to fix them the very next weekend. We’re fired up and ready for a second chance to get two big wins in Adelbert this weekend.”

Throwback weekend is a cool weekend to be a part of, so head down Adelbert and hit up two games this weekend to support the ladies. It is a weekend that is full of some different energy from playing in a different gym in different uniforms. Surely this can only help the squad back onto track in conference, and after playing these two teams just last weekend, they should know what it takes to beat them.