Senior Kate Lewis (San Antonio, Texas / Ronald Reagan) took center stage as the Caltech women’s basketball team took it to Pomona-Pitzer College, 76-44 on Senior Day. As the team’s lone senior, Lewis was honored before the game with a special pregame ceremony inside a decorated Braun Gymnasium, filled with pictures of her in addition […]
Senior Kate Lewis (San Antonio, Texas / Ronald Reagan) took center stage as the Caltech women’s basketball team took it to Pomona-Pitzer College, 76-44 on Senior Day.
As the team’s lone senior, Lewis was honored before the game with a special pregame ceremony inside a decorated Braun Gymnasium, filled with pictures of her in addition to a banner with her name and number on it stretching across one of the sideline walls. With Saturday being her final home game with the Beavers, Lewis made sure not to dissapoint the Caltech faithful and became the catalyst for the women’s team’s most decisive victory of the season.
Lewis gouged the Sagehens for 14 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. Similar to the Beavers’ most recent outing when they hosted the University of La Verne, Lewis finished just two assists shy of an elusive truple-double. Still, the senior led by example much like she all season. This time, she had more assists than turnovers and also went 6-for-9 at the free throw line and even added one block for good measure. Lewis saw the court for 39 minutes. When she finally checked out, she exited the court to a standing ovation from all the fans in attendence. Though she will most likely come up short of Stephanie Wong ’15’s total points record, Lewis will leave Caltech as the program’s second leading scorer and second best rebounder of all time.
As great of an all-around game as Lewis put together, perhaps the biggest reason for Caltech winning in such decisive fashion might have been her double-double being just one of three for the Beavers. Freshman guard Samantha D’Costa (San Jose, Calif. / St. Francis) scored 20 points to go with 10 rebounds and sophomore center Elizabeth Eiden (White Plains, N.Y. / Holy Child) had 15 points, five rebounds and a team-high five blocks. Freshman Grace Peng (San Ramon, Calif. / California) also played in an important role in being the team’s leading scorer on the day. She finished with 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting.
Fueled by the raucous Senior Day crowd, Caltech came out of the gate strong with sophomore Madeline Schemel (Westport, Conn. / Staples) contributing four of her team’s first six points. Though the Sagehens put up a firm fight early, the Beavers began to find their groove in the later portion of the first quarter, as evidenced in a 13-4 scoring run after the six-minute mark. By the time the third quarter rolled around, Lewis and the Beavers began to click on all cylinders. They opened the frame with a 10-1 run highlighted by six points from Eiden, one of which came on a nice pass from Lewis on an inbound play. The Lewis-to-Eiden connection beneath the basket worked particularly nicely tonight, as the frontcourt duo connected on three successful touch-and-go scoring plays. Ultimately, the quality of shots proved to be a significant difference maker in the outcome. The Beavers outshot the Sagehens 50.9 percent to 22.5 percent.
Head Coach Sandra Marbut and the Beavers will close out the season when the travel to California Lutheran University this Tuesday for a 5:30 p.m. game.
