The Bard women's basketball team was competitive with the William Smith Herons, but dropped the game on Saturday afternoon, 65-43.
Erin Tobes led the Raptors in scoring and steals, with 15 and three, respectively.
Morgan Kottka put together a double-double, with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and a block.
Shirley Dong contributed nine points, three rebounds, three assists, and two steals. She hit a three for the fifteenth time in the past 16 games.
Her fellow senior
Aislynn Dixon had three points, three rebounds, two steals, an assist, and a block.
Lexi Miller recorded four points and six rebounds.
Ava Gregory notched five boards and two assists.
Jessica Martin posted two rebounds.
In the first quarter, the Herons started out in front 4-0. Then, Tobes made a pull-up jumper to get the Raptors on the board. She had Bard's first four points after another similar shot minutes later to make it 4-7. The remainder of the period, William Smith went on a 12-4 run that extended the gap to 11.
Both teams prevented a field goal for the first 3:47 of the second quarter. Dong was able to navigate to the rim for a layup, but the Herons responded. William Smith had a 17-point lead late in the half, but Bard trimmed it to 13 after two Kottka layups.
A couple of jumpers from Dong cut the lead to single digits, and Bard had some momentum to start the second half. With 7:24 remaining, William Smith had regained a 14-point advantage at 40-26. A pair of Kottka jumpers and a Dong three in a 7-0 run gave Bard another run to make it 40-33. However, the Herons continued to get further in front, and a big 11-2 close to the quarter led to a 51-35 advantage heading into the final quarter.
Bard shot just 3-of-18 in the fourth compared to William Smith's 5-of-17. The Raptors limited the Herons' efficiency from beyond the arc, as they hit just 1-of-7 attempts. However, it wasn't enough, as second chance points came back to haunt the Raptors, with William Smith scoring five. Overall, in the second half, Bard scored 11 points off turnovers compared to William Smith's one.
This season Dong led the team in points (216) and steals (50), Miller had a team-high 226 rebounds and 13 blocks, and Tobes dished out the most assists, with 63. Dong finished her career third in school history in career assists, with 205, third in threes made, with 125 and seventh on the all-time scoring leaderboard in program history, with 767 points.
