Elmira Wins Overtime Thriller Over Alfred
Elmira, NY – The Elmira College Women’s Basketball team won a thrilling overtime conference game Tuesday evening against the Saxons of Alfred University 79-76. The win improves the Soaring Eagles to 3-4 in the Empire 8, while the loss drops the Saxons to 0-7 in conference.
In the start of the game both teams played even with neither team gaining more than a five point lead. The Saxons gained an edge late going up 27-22 at the five minute mark. Jessica Zoltowski ’14 (Erie, PA -- Harbor Creek) led EC back to even the game at 27 with 3:45 left in the half. The Saxons did not go away as they scored the next three baskets and go ahead by six with 34 seconds left in half. With 13 seconds left Zoltowski stole the ball and made a jumper to put the score at 38-34 going into halftime. She led the Soaring Eagles in scoring with 14 points and four steals, while Liz Forrest ’14 (North Walpole, NH -- Fall Mountain) helped out with nine points of her own.
The Saxons came out in the second half looking to put the Soaring Eagles away. They scored the first 6 points of the half to take a 10 point lead just two and a half minutes into the half. After Coach Shannon Howley took a timeout to settle her team, the Soaring Eagles responded with a mini-run of their own getting the lead down to 5 with 13 minutes left in the game. After Alfred expanded their lead to 12 with about 10 minutes left, EC decided to make its run. The combination of aggressive defense from and strong shooting by the Soaring Eagles brought the game to a tie with just under 5 minutes left.
The final 5 minutes of the half proved to be a battle between the two teams. EC never lead down the stretch but fought to tie the game on two different occasions, the last with 33 seconds left. Both teams had a chance to win the game late, but neither team could finish and the game headed to overtime with the score 71-71.
The theme continued into the overtime period with scoring very difficult to come by early on. Both teams hit just one shot in overtime, but it was the clutch free throw shooting of both Zoltowski and Maria Thannhauser ’14 (Newfield, NY -- Newfield) that made the difference for the Soaring Eagles. Zoltowski made her first pair of free throws to give EC the lead with 1:30 left and Thannhauser followed by making a pair of her own to give EC the lead for good at 77-76. Zoltowski then iced the game at the line late with the final two points of the night and giving the Soaring Eagles the 79-76 victory.
The Soaring Eagles were led by three double digit scorers. Zoltowski scored 34 points and recorded 7 rebounds in her 43 minutes of play, Forrest contributed 14 points, and Thannhauser put in another 12 for EC.