"Despite six injuries, it has been a rewarding year," said Washington College women's basketball coach Lanée Cole-Smith. Her small team of only seven healthy players went 1-7 during the first semester and 9-8 this semester, "which is an amazing feat."
She also noted, "It was challenging working with a small team because on court there are 5-on-5 and we did not have enough to do that so we had a group of students that scrimmaged us.
"The nice part about a small team, however, was the coach-to-player ratio."
WC 75, Haverford 54
The Shorewomen had a busy final week, as they played multiple games due to cancellations of previous games from snow. On Wednesday, February 19, they played in a home Centennial Conference game against Haverford, which they won, 75-54.
Junior guard Karen Simos scored 31 points, three points shy of her school record set earlier in the season, and junior guard Yianna Patronas broke the school record for assists with nine and almost recorded a triple-double. Patronas also scored nine points and had ten rebounds.
Patronas's fourth assist of the game enabled her to break the record of assists during a single season, which was 122 in the 1998-1999 season.
The Shorewomen had a 12-3 run over the last three minutes of the first half. Junior guard Katie Piringer knocked in a three-pointer with two seconds left in the half, which gave WC a 40-29 halftime lead.
In the second half, the Shorewomen were able to keep the double-digit lead, outscoring the Fords 35-25.
Junior Meghan Hartzell scored ten points, grabbed eight boards, blocked four shots and recorded three steals.
WC 80, Bryn Mawr 43
On February 20, the Sho'women traveled to Bryn Mawr and swept the Owls off of their feet. Simos scored 21 points and junior forward Kathryn Zajac scored a career-high 18 points and added 15 rebounds, which helped enable their teammates to walk away with a 80-43 win.
The Shorewomen were ahead 43-25 at the half and maintained this lead throughout the rest of the game.
Piringer added 16 points while sophomore guard Jeremy Cook added nine points and five boards and Patronas had five points, six assists, and ten rebounds.
Muhlenberg 96, WC 82
February 21, the Shorewomen traveled to Allentown, Pennsylvania as they played a makeup game against Muhlenberg and lost, 96-82.
At the half, the Shorewomen were in the lead by four points, but during the second period, the Mules outscored the Shorewomen.
Washington attempted a late comeback as Patronas scored three three-pointers in a row over 18 seconds, but it was not enough to pull ahead since the Mules sunk six out of eight free throws in the end to seal the win.
Both Piringer and Simos scored 23 points and Patronas dished out a game-high five assists to help lead their teammates. Hartzell added ten points and ten rebounds.
WC 84, McDaniel 80
For their final game, their fourth in four days, the Shorewomen closed out their 2002-03 season in a home conference game against McDaniel College. They upset the Green Terror by four points, 84-80.
Piringer scored 20 points in the win and finished the season with a 17.9 scoring average, the highest in team history. The previous school record was 17. 5, which was set in 1994-1995.
McDaniel held a 34-32 lead at the half and also had a 61-56 lead with 9 minutes remaining. However, the Shorewomen would not allow them to win the game, going on a 16-6 run to secure the win.
Coach Cole-Smith commented, "It is nice to finish the season off by upsetting McDaniel. It is a credit to our players because it shows that they fought hard and did not give up even though they were tired from four games in a row."
Simos scored 19 points, Patronas scored 17 points and had six assists. Hartzell scored a career-high of 16 points and had seven rebounds and Zajac added ten points and six boards.
The Shorewomen finished the season 10-15 overall and 6-9 in the Centennial Conference after starts of 0-5 and 2-9.
Several individual records were broken or tied, including the career, season and single-game marks for three-pointers by Piringer; the career, season, and single-game records for blocked shots by Hartzell; the single-game record for points by Simos; and the single-game and single-season assists records by Patronas. All of those players are juniors, and the Shorewomen have no seniors on their roster.
In addition, Piringer made second-team All-Centennial and Simos made honorable mention, the first time that the Shorewomen have had two representatives on the all-conference teams.
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