Hamilton’s recent 17–7 winning run is the best the team has seen in 17 years. Photo courtesy of Joshua Mckee.
This Saturday, Hamilton’s Women’s Basketball is traveling to Lewiston, Maine to compete in the NESCAC Championship Quarterfinal. They have had an impressive season, going 17–7 in total, the most games won by the Continentals in 17 years. As the sixth seed, they will be playing the third seed, Bates, who like Hamilton, has had one of their best seasons in the last couple of decades.
Throughout the season, Hamilton has been a dominant rebounding team, leading the NESCAC in total rebounds, defensive rebounds, and rebounding margin. Taylor Lambo ’26 is second in the conference in rebounds per game with 8.9, while first-year Kendall Harris ’27 averaged 7.7 rebounds per game. Lambo and Harris also lead the Continentals in points per game with 15 and 13.9 points respectively. Emily Hall ’24 also contributed mightily to the offense with 53 total assists. Scoring only four fewer points per game this season than Bates, Hamilton can without a doubt overtake the Bobcats, especially given the Continentals’ rebounding prowess.
Looking back on the Continentals’ overall season, it has been a story of two halves. They were absolutely dominant in their first ten games, winning all of them. In their first nine games, they won by a margin of at least nine points, which included a 40-point blowout against Fisher College. The streak was capped off by a thrilling game against the University of Rochester, where the Continentals won 64–63. After being fouled on a three-point shot attempt with 1.2 seconds left, Harris knocked down all three free throws to take a one-point lead, which effectively ended the game.
During the rest of the season, the Continentals went 7–7, a significant drop off from their early season success, yet they still had impressive performances throughout this late-season stretch.
The game that ended their winning streak was a heartbreaking loss against the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs. Mirroring their previous win over Rochester, they lost on a pair of free throws in the final second to ice the game, with the final score being 60–61. In their ten in-conference matchups, they went 5–5, playing very inconsistently. In their first in-conference game, Hamilton played Middlebury, where they lost 54–57, one of their lowest-scoring games. In an overall poor shooting night, the Continentals were unable to score in the last minute of the game to tie or take the lead. However, they followed up the loss with an efficient shooting night against Williams, where they dominated the glass, winning 77–66. Two games later, they played their current opponent in Bates. Despite shooting well, they let up a season-high 82 points, committing 15 turnovers and conceding 25 free throws, resulting in a 16-point loss.
In the second to last game of the season, the Continentals took on the top-seeded Bowdoin Polar Bears, losing 46–70. Despite a 17-point game by Harris and the team’s efficient 15–17 free-throw shooting, the Continentals were unable to claw back from a ninepoint halftime deficit, getting outscored 17–32 in the second half. However, in the last game of the season, the Continentals beat Colby 52–49, holding onto their lead in the final two minutes of the game.
Lambo had a masterful game leading both teams with 22 points and a career-high 17 rebounds. While the Continentals have not been consistent while playing against other teams from the NESCAC, they have shown that they can win against other in-conference teams. Bates is a tough opponent, but with strong offensive performances by Hamilton’s leading scorers Lambo and Harris, contributions from the rest of the team, and a concerted defensive effort from the team as a whole, Hamilton can beat Bates and advance to the next round of the NESCAC Championship.