On Nov. 19 and 20 the women's basketball team traveled to Old Westbury, N.Y. and kicked off its season with two convincing victories over Wesleyan University and SUNY College at Old Westbury.
"Anytime you start off your season 2-0 it's a good thing, so we're certainly excited," head coach Scott Hemer said about his team's fast start.
The Knights defeated Wesleyan in the season opener, 56-48 behind an outstanding effort by freshman Shannon McGinnis, who led the team with 15 points.
"We know that we have pretty good chemistry with this group off the court. The question was how would they respond together on the court," Hemer said. "We left feeling very good about what we saw with the chemistry between the upperclassmen and the first year players."
Geneseo led 29-25 at halftime but took complete control of the game in the second half with a 14-3 run, capped-off by back-to-back layups by senior Katelyn Charbonneau. Senior Bri Dunton added 11 points, seven assists and four steals while junior Melissa Graham grabbed seven rebounds and scored eight points.
The next day against Old Westbury, the Knights continued to showcase a very balanced offensive attack with four players posting double-digit points. Graham led the way with 19 points and six assists while Charbonneau, Dunton and sophomore Lea Sobieraski added 13, 10 and 12 points, respectively.
After falling behind early the Knights held Old Westbury to 24 points in the second half, cruising to a 73-59 victory.
"We certainly have a lot of work to do defensively to get up to the standard that we try to live by on that end of the floor; however, we do feel that offensively this group is further ahead than we had anticipated them being at this point," Hemer said.
Geneseo did control the boards, 50-39 with McGinnis grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds with Graham and Sobieraski adding eight and nine, respectively.
"I think our record [in the past] has reflected success on the [defensive] end of the floor and we're not where we need to be, but I think we're heading in the right direction and they seem committed to improving every day," Hemer said.
On Tuesday Nov. 29 the Knights traveled to SUNY Brockport for the first round of the Wendy's College Classic tournament and fell to Roberts Wesleyan College, 76-71.
The Knights battled all game long fighting back from nine points down to tie the contest at halftime, 30-30. The Raiders then went on a 17-7 run to open up the second half, taking a 10-point lead. Graham led the Knights with 18 points including a three-pointer with 46 seconds left to play that cut the deficit down to five. Roberts Wesleyan hit four of six free throws to close out the game and seal the victory.
Geneseo falls to 2-1 overall and continues the Wendy's tournament on Thursday Dec. 1 against St. John Fisher College at 8 p.m.
"We're excited about the opportunity to learn where we're at … and what we have left to do before we enter the bulk of the conference schedule," Hemer said.