By Kevin Peterson
On Friday, the Colorado College women’s basketball team took on the Southwestern Pirates in their first game of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship. Colorado College, coming in with a 10-8 record in the SCAC, were favored over the Pirates, who were the sixth ranked team coming into the tournament. Unfortunately, the Tigers were unable to keep their 73-72 lead with 17 seconds on the clock and fell to the Pirates 74-73.
Colorado College triumphed over Southwestern previously this season, in their first conference meeting. This, along with their higher rank, made the loss to the Pirates especially frustrating.
The Pirates were in front for the majority of the game. CC was able to cut the lead in the third quarter, winning by seven points with McKenzee Gertz ’21 leading the Tigers with 25 points.
“I think we definitely had more basketball to play this last weekend,” said Gertz. “We had the potential to advance to the semi-finals and even the championships, especially with how close we played both Austin College and Trinity University in Texas, which are both top-25 teams, in the regular season this year. It’s a shame we dropped that game to Southwestern.”
The fourth quarter saw the two teams evenly matched. Southwestern trailed the Tigers for most of the quarter until they tied the game with a little over three minutes remaining. Gertz gave the Tigers a one-point lead with 17 seconds on the clock, but five seconds later, the Pirates took back the game with a layup at the other end of the court, closing the game out with a one-point win over the Tigers.
Southwestern ended their season with a loss to Austin College in the semifinals of the SCAC tournament and Austin College went on to beat Trinity University in the final. The Tigers lost to both Austin College and Trinity University in close games during the regular season, which gives them hope for success in these matchups next season.
Despite the disappointing end to the season in Texas on Friday, the women’s basketball program looks back on a successful season which shows huge potential for next year. CC was a very young team this year with six first-years, so a promising future in the SCAC is expected.
Jordan Meltzer ’20 highlighted the success of the team in her final season. “This is by far the best team I have ever played on throughout my whole basketball career. Our chemistry was solid on and off the court and I will never forget how special this team is,” said Meltzer. “This team is going to do so much more damage next season and I am so grateful to be a part of a program that has grown so much.”