Hamilton’s women’s basketball team is back and they have started the season off strong with a 65–47 against Utica University and a 74–54 win over Morrisville State. Hamilton has brought in three new freshmen to bolster an already strong team from last year.
The star of the first game was Hamilton College’s and NESCAC Rookie of the Year Taylor Lambo ’26. She scored a game-leading 26 points and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds. The game started slow for the Continentals as they began the game trailing 6–2 but Kendall Harris ’27, Hamilton’s newest star and freshman starter, scored five unanswered points on a three-pointer and a layup for a 7–6 lead, four minutes into the match. The lead switched back and forth for the rest of the quarter until Lambo went to work and popped off for the next five points for a 15–12 advantage with 42 seconds left. The Continentals would keep their foot on the gas and keep the lead for the rest of the night.
Hamilton’s Abbey Schwoebel ’27 was fouled with 0.1 seconds left in the quarter and made a free throw for a 16–12 cushion. The scoring continued later in the second half with Schwoebel and Sophie Thompson ’24 hit back-to-back layups and Lambo knocked down two from the line for a 27–20 score with four minutes left in the half. A second by Lambo gave Hamilton its first double-digit lead at 32–22 with a little over two minutes left. Utica scored the last four points of the first half on free throws in the final minute and trailed 34–28 at the break.
The Continentals set the tone with a 6–0 run to start the second half. The Pioneers held Hamilton scoreless for the final three minutes of the third quarter and pulled within single digits at 48–39, but Hamilton rallied back and limited Utica to just eight points in the final quarter. However, the Pioneers were still within striking distance at 52–44 with 5:50 left in the game. The Continentals would give them no chance of a comeback as they put up 10 straight points during the next four minutes and led 62–44 with 1:39 remaining. The Continentals’ largest lead of 20 points would come a minute later with Sophie Blomberg ’26 hitting a three-pointer behind the arc to make the score 65–45. The game would end soon after with a final score of 65–47. Hamilton won the battle on defense, grabbing 61 rebounds to Utica’s 40 and forcing their opponent to shoot only at just a 23.6% rate (13–55) from the field and 1–16 behind the arc.
Hamilton played again on Tuesday at home against the Morrisville State Mustangs. The Continentals got off to a quick start with buckets scored by Lambo and Courtney Shay ’24 to give Hamilton a 6–0 lead in the first quarter. After a bucket by Morrisville’s Brooke Hammersley ’24, the Continentals went on a seven-point run. The Continentals would keep the pressure for the rest of the quarter ending it with a 16-point lead over the Mustangs with a score of 25–9.
The second quarter began with a bang for the Continentals as they would continue to score. But they also allowed Morrisville to get back into the game, scoring more than double what they did the previous quarter. This would not matter as the Continentals grew their lead to a game high of 22 after a three-pointer by Tessa Cole ’25 in the final few minutes of the half.
The third quarter turned into a dangerous one for the Continentals as their lead dwindled into the single digits for the first time since the start of the game. Lambo, Maria Mercado Rengel ’24 and Schwoebel would score the Continentals only points of the quarter, a hodgepodge accumulating to nine points. A series of Mustang-dominated possessions and poor offensive showing would lead to a gap of only six points between the teams as the quarter closed.
Hamilton would rally back in the fourth quarter, exchanging points before going once again on a run, led by three-pointers from Shay and Althea Hill ’26. A continued offensive effort from Hamilton would continue into the waning minutes of the game which would end in a 74–54 victory for the Continentals.
Harris would end the game with 16 points and five steals, leading the team in both categories. Hill would have her best game yet, scoring the team second most points in the game with 11. The team overall would limit Morrisville to only 44 total shots with only 17 of them going in. The women next play in the Oneonta & Hartwick Classic on the 17th and 18th against SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick.
