St. John Fisher Rallies In OT To Beat Nazareth
The St. John Fisher College women's basketball team used a 9-0 run over the opening 4:38 of overtime to pick up a 71-65 win over East-Avenue rival Nazareth College in a pivotal Empire 8 Conference matchup on Tuesday night at Fisher’s Bobby Wanzer Court.
With the win, Fisher improves to 7-9 overall and 4-3 in the Empire 8, while Nazareth falls to 7-8, 3-3.
Nazareth opened the game with a 10-0 run over the first seven minutes with Brittany Wilson scoring all 10 points. The Golden Flyers led 13-2 with 11 minutes left in the half, but Fisher went on a 16-2 run over the next six minutes to take the lead and led 27-25 at the half.
In the second half, Fisher pushed its lead to 10 points at 43-33 with 10:43 left on a pair of free throws from Lauren Gustin, but the Golden Flyers tightened up on the defensive end.
Nazareth took its first lead of the half at 50-49 on a traditional three-point-play from Jenee Vanderstyne with 4:33 left in the game. The Golden Flyers extended their lead to 55-51 on a 3-pointer from Brittany Patenaude with 3:16 left, but Fisher came right back.
Meghan Soja tied the game at 55-55 after layups on back-to-back possessions and Stephanie Sweeney gave her team the lead at 57-55 with two free throws with 1:36 left. Brittany TallChief’s layup on the ensuing possession tied the game up for Nazareth and the Golden Flyers took the lead on two free throws from Vanderstyne with 47 seconds left in regulation.
Fisher, however, tied the game up at 59-59 with 30 seconds left from Soja.
After a missed layup by Patenaude, Fisher’s Camaryn Buckner snagged the defensive rebound and was fouled, but missed two free throws with 12.1 seconds left. The Cardinals grabbed the offensive rebounds and had a chance to win the game in regulation, but Nazareth’s Katie Kollar blocked a shot by Sweeney at the buzzer.
In overtime, it was all Fisher.
Fisher scored the first two points of the extra period on a jumper from Colleen Maloney with 2:20 left, giving the Cardinals a 61-59 advantage. On Fisher’s next possession, Maloney, who leads the Empire 8 in made 3-pointers, sank her first 3-pointer of the game, giving the Cardinals a five-point advantage. Fisher scored the game’s next four points, before Vanderstyne sank two 3-pointers in the final 22 seconds.
Maloney led all scorers with 23 points. Soja finished with 14 points, while Sweeney totaled 12 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and four steals. For Nazareth, Vanderstyne finished with 19 points, while Wilson added 14 points and six rebounds.