Cardinals Use Late Rally To Beat Hartwick In OT
The St. John Fisher College women’s basketball team rallied from a 15-point deficit in the final three minutes of regulation, and came through with an 85-72 win in overtime over visiting Hartwick College on Friday night at Fisher’s Bobby Wanzer.
With the win, Fisher improves to 11-9 overall and 8-3 in the Empire 8 Conference, while Hartwick falls to 6-11, 3-6. The win also marks Fisher’s sixth consecutive victory, the longest winning streak in the last five years.
Hartwick closed out the first half with a 17-3 run and led 37-29 at intermission.
Fisher cut Hartwick’s lead down to six points at 41-35 with 15:43 left in the game, but Hartwick scored the next six points and pushed its lead to 15 points on three different occasions, the last time coming with 3:01 left on a pair of free throws from Fritzi Flores to give the Hawks a 63-48 advantage.
The Cardinals, however, did not quit and used a full-court press to force four turnovers and scored 13 unanswered after Meghan Soja’s layup with 1:00 left made it 63-61.
Hartwick converted a free throw at the other end, but Soja again scored down low with 16 seconds left, making it 64-63.
Hartwick’s Maria Foglia made two free throws with 13 seconds left, pushing Hartwick’s lead back to three at 66-63, but senior Colleen Maloney, who was 0-for-6 from 3-point range, forced overtime with a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 2.5 seconds left.
In overtime, it was all Fisher. After Hartwick’s Kate Purcell went 1-for-2 from the foul line on the opening possession of extra frame, Fisher scored the next 13 points and never looked back. Fisher shot 4-for-4 from the floor in overtime and 10-for-13 from the foul line. Hartwick was 1-for-7 from the field in overtime.
Maloney led four Fisher players in double figures with 21 points. Lax and Stephanie Sweeney each scored 16 points, while Soja added 11. Camaryn Buckner added nine points and nine rebounds, while Kristi Jeffres finished with eight.