After a 6-0 run to start its 2nd-round WNIT game against Old Dominion, the Purdue Fort Wayne women’s basketball team spent the rest of the 1st half looking like they hadn’t played a game in 2 weeks. Because, well, they hadn’t.
“I’ll be honest, it was rough,” Mastodons 4th year head coach Maria Marchesano said about the extended time off. “To keep focused and motivated every single day. Especially because we didn’t know who we were playing, so we couldn’t even like, ‘Hey, let’s work on this, or let’s work on that.’ We took a couple days off. We practiced. Then we took another day off. And then we said, ‘Well, we find out tomorrow. Who do we play? So let’s practice.’ We practiced that Monday, and then we find out that afternoon that we don’t play for another 8 days…and at that point it was like, ‘We’ve already practiced a week.'”
Indeed, by halftime, the Sun Belt’s 3rd-best rebounding team and best offensive-rebounding team was crushing PFW on the offensive glass (11-4) and in the rebounding margin as a whole (27-20). Meanwhile, the normally-sharpshooting Mastodons were only 2 for 7 from 3-point range, and the score was tied, 34-34, as the teams trotted into the locker room.
“The way the first half went was my fear going into this game,” Marchesano said after the game. “They are a phenomenal rebounding team…so we came out a little timid. We knew they were going to be physical. We were kind of second-guessing our offense.”
Sometime between the locker-room conversation and the buzzer that ended the 3rd quarter, that 2nd-guessing dissipated. And the bombing started. Grad student Amelia Bromenschenkel made the 1st 3 of the quarter a minute and 51 seconds in. Then it was the national leader in 3-point shooting percentage, Lauren Ross, who made one, and then Audra Emmerson after that.
All assisted and only halfway there, as Purdue Fort Wayne would make 6 3-pointers in the 3rd quarter, 3 by Emerson alone, who lead the Mastodons in scoring in the contest with 17 points, good for 9 above her average.
A 4th-year player for the same program, Emerson expressed her gratitude for the crowd who showed up to watch: “I’ve been here with Amelia and Jazzy the whole time, and we’ve…gone through a lot together, and I think we…all just wanted to stick it out…actually for my community and the people that have come out. You saw it today. They all showed out for us, so we want to show for them.”
The home team had also picked up the defense in the 3rd quarter, holding Monarchs to just 7 points in the decisive quarter, and by the time the 3-point barrage was over, the Mastodons were cruising into the game’s final frame with a 17-point lead.
“We were disruptive,” Marchesano observed about her team’s 2nd half effort. “I think we had only forced them to 4 turnovers (in the 1st half), and they finished with 18 turnovers. That’s more like us, right? We’re disruptive. We were much better on the boards. I think we were down by 10 or 11 in the rebound battle at half, and only finished down three, and then, you know, that stuff gets our offense going.”
The 87-61 win for Purdue Fort Wayne sets up another WNIT home game for the group this Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern against the in-state Butler Bulldogs, who beat University of Illinois-Chicago, 61-54, on Sunday.
Butler just happens to be where Marchesano played her college basketball. “I didn’t want to play them,” she admitted, “one because that whole staff I’m pretty close with, they’re friends of mine. And two, I played there, and I like to cheer for my alma mater, and I, you know, like to see them successful. So I don’t love this game. To be honest, I wish they were on the other side of the bracket, but…obviously, we’re going to go out there and try and win it.”
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