By Eric Weiss

Senior Writer

The women’s basketball team had a rough time this past week, dropping a tough loss to Navy, 66-45, on Saturday at home and swallowing another loss to American on the road Wednesday, 66-38.

The Navy game started off well for the Bison as they put the first nine points on the board and seemed to be playing staunch defense against the Midshipmen. But beginning at the 17:21 mark, the Bison went on a gut-wrenching 12-minute scoring drought, allowing Navy to score 27 unanswered points.

The Bison did not manage a set of back-to-back field goals until the 10-minute mark in the second half and found  it difficult to recover from the deficit they had fallen into in the first half. The closest the Bison would get in the second half would be 13, but anemic shooting plagued the Orange and Blue as they attempted a comeback.

Shelby Romine ’14 led the team in both points and assists while Joyce Novacek ’11 and Cosi Higham ’11 were tied with six rebounds each.

“At this point, we really need to focus on stringing together 40 minutes of solid play,” Novacek said.

Against the American Eagles the Bison started slow as they only scored 12 points in the first half. American got hot early and continued shooting well throughout the game, shooting 52.0 percent from the field.

Turnovers plagued the Bison all night and they could not seem to find their groove after the long bus ride to Washington, DC. After halftime the Bison did improve their shooting as a majority of the team recorded field goals, but the deficit was too much for the team to recover as American held a comfortable 20-point lead for the game.

Once again Romine was the leading scorer for the Bison, but even she was unable to break into double digits, scoring just nine points. Also, Higham was again the leading rebounder for the Orange and Blue, pulling down eight boards.

“I would say that our team’s biggest strength is our ability to score in transition,” Novacek said.

The Bison hope to bring that strategy to the table as they face Patriot League rivals Holy Cross on Feb. 12 and Lafayette on Feb. 16, both at home.