Box Score By: Zach Perbeck

NEW LONDON, Conn. - The Connecticut College women's basketball team narrowly fell to Middlebury College by a score of 51-47 thanks to a key last minute three-pointer from the Panthers leading scorer Alexa Mustafaj. This marks two closely contested matchups for the Camels in the past three days as they fell to Williams College in overtime on Friday night by a single point.
 
The Camels started off the game strong, with two early buckets from senior Emily Tripp (Westport, Mass.) to propel them to a 6-0 lead. The Panthers would fight back, with Bethany Lucey scoring all five of her points on the afternoon to tie the game at 6-6. With another tie at 11-11 and four minutes remaining in the quarter, sophomore Rebecca Oberman-Levine (Hamden, Conn.) scored four of her team-high 12 points to give the Camels a two-point lead after the first quarter of play.
 
The second quarter was a similar story, with the Camels getting out to a seven-point lead roughly halfway through the period, before the Panthers brought themselves back within reach of the lead. With just over a minute remaining, Middlebury's Claire Miller took it upon herself to tie the game up by the break. After a layup and a converted free throw, Miller tied the game at 26 by the buzzer.
 
Both defenses shined in the third quarter, allowing just 18 combined points in the period, and shutting each other out for the last three minutes of the quarter. Junior Jaycie Rojik (Scituate, Mass.) found herself at the line multiple times in the period and was rewarded by converting on three of her four attempts, the first to bring the game back to even, and the second and third to give the Camels a two-point lead with 3:17 left in what would be the last scoring play of the quarter. Connecticut College managed to force six Middlebury turnovers in the quarter and despite a poor shooting period, the Camels found themselves ahead by two points (36-34) with one quarter left to play in the game.
 
The fourth quarter got off to a good start for the Camels, with freshman Abby Ilusorio (Bonita, Calif) opening the period's scoring with a three-pointer to extend the Camel's lead to five points with 7:53 to play in the contest. Two straight three-pointers from Middlebury's Reagan McDonald gave the Panthers a three-point lead with 5:58 remaining in the game. Conn junior Molly Cronin (Wellesley, Mass.) immediately answered with a three of her own to tie the game once again and signaled for the next four minutes of the two teams exchanging blows, never getting ahead by more than a score.

With 1:25 left and a one-point lead for the Panthers, the scoring stopped. It was not until 22 seconds were remaining in the game that Mustafaj found herself with ball as the shot clock was running out for the Panthers and banked a three-pointer off the backboard from a foot behind the line to give Middlebury a four-point lead and put the pressure on the Camels. Oberman-Levine answered with two points of her own and a quick timeout from Middlebury coach KJ Krasco gave the Panthers a two-point lead and the ball with 17 seconds remaining. After one made free throw on two attempts by Mustafaja, the Camels found themselves down by three points with 15 seconds to attempt to send the game to overtime. The Middlebury defense held its ground and forced Conn inside the arc and a missed contested layup by Rojik could not narrow the lead. After another foul and another 1-for-2 trip to the free-throw line, the Panthers owned a four-point lead with just four second remaining. A desperation heave from the Camels at the buzzer could not connect and the Panthers claimed victory by a score of 51-47.
 
Oberman-Levine led the way for the Camels in scoring with 12 points and ten rebounds for her second straight double-double while Ilusorio added five points and seven rebounds of her own, including five on the offensive glass. For the Panthers, Mustafaj led the team in scoring with a game-high 15 points and Gianna Palli added two points, four assists, and 14 rebounds.
 
The Panthers led the Camels in field goal percentage (36% - 26.1%), three-point shooting percentage (26.1% - 23.1%), and free-throw percentage (60% - 45.5%). The Camels managed to force 18 turnovers on Middlebury with their strong defense, while coughing the ball up 11 times themselves. Connecticut College also tallied more assists than their opponent, with 11 compared to nine for Middlebury. 
 
Connecticut College (3-15, NESCAC 1-5) will remain at home and host Bates on Friday, February 4 at 7:30 p.m.