Elmira, Hartwick and Utica Come up Short
ST. JOHN FISHER 79, Medaille 60
The St. John Fisher College women's basketball program closed out 2014 with another win, as the Cardinals cruised to a 79-60 win over visiting Medaille College on Tuesday evening at Fisher's Manning & Napier Varsity Gym.
After losing its season opener, Fisher will enter 2015 with a 7-2 overall record.
Fisher led the entire game, jumping out to a 9-0 lead with junior
Mary Kate Cusack scoring all of her team's points on three 3-pointers.
Fisher took its biggest lead of the opening half at 31-15 on a 3-pointer from
Emily Piacentini and led 43-30 at the break. The Cardinals knocked down eight 3-pointers in the first half, including four from Cusack and three from Piacentini.
The Cardinals pushed their lead to 21 on a layup from
Jessica Rhone with just over 12 minutes left in the game and controlled the tempo for the remainder of the contest.
Cusack finished with a season-high 24 points, including five 3-pointers. She also led the team with five steals and two blocked shots, while adding five rebounds.
Portia Velasco totaled 13 points, five rebounds and three assists, while
McKenzie Bezon collected six rebounds, five assists and four points.
Sydney Bloomstein finished with seven rebounds and six points, while
Claire Walsh scored six points on two 3-pointers.
Rutgers-Camden 54, ELMIRA 52
The Elmira College women's basketball team held a three-point lead with over a minute and a half to play, but the Soaring Eagles would fall at the buzzer as Rutgers-Camden downed EC, 54-52, on a last-second layup.
Alex Balara'15, with her father sitting on the opposing bench, scored 16 points to lead the Purple and Gold.
Balara, who was one of three EC players in double-figure points, also recorded seven rebounds, four assists, and four steals in a stat-stuffing effort.
Meghan Loya '16 chipped in 12 points and 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the season. Rounding-out the double-digit scorers for EC was
Karli Pochkar '16 who scored 10 points and pulled down eight rebounds.
Elmira trailed from the opening tip as the Scarlet Raptors scored the game's first six points in just under two minutes of play. EC would settle in and make it a one-point game, 8-7, at the 15:45 mark, but Rutgers-Camden would stretch their lead out to seven points for the first of three times at 16-9. The Scarlet Raptors led 20-13 with 7:43 to play, but the Soaring Eagles closed the half on a 13-8 run to trail by just two, 28-26, at the half.
Rutgers-Camden started the second half strong, scoring eight of the first 10 points of the half to take a 36-28 lead, the largest advantage held by either team in tonight's game. Balara helped spark a 7-0 run, scoring five points and assisting on the other basket during the stretch, to make it just a 36-35 game with 13:33 left in regulation. The Soaring Eagles finally took their first lead of the game, 41-39, with 10:12 to play on a Loya jumper.
Elmira would hold that lead for the next nine minutes until a banked-in three-pointer from Rutgers-Camden's Alex Gravinese tied the game at 50 with 1:22 on the clock. Kamari Talley put the Scarlet Raptors on top 52-50 with only 45 seconds left, but Pochkar answered 14 seconds later with a layup to knot the game up at 52. Talley missed a jumper with 17 seconds left, giving EC a chance to win, but a turnover with six seconds on the clock gave the Scarlet Raptors one final opportunity. Coming out of a timeout, Rutgers-Camden got a layup down low that missed off the backboard, but Tanjae Lewis put the rebound in as time expired to lift the Scarlet Raptors to victory.
Vassar 51, HARTWICK 49
A driving layup off glass and in from Caitlin Drakeley with 16 seconds left in the game pushed Vassar College past Hartwick by a final score of 51-49 on Tuesday night.
The Hawks had a chance to draw even on the ensuing possession but
Taylor Vonasek's shot was blocked by Vassar's Rose Serafini with just under five seconds left. Following a foul and a Vassar missed front-end of a one-and-one, Hartwick had the ball back under its own basket with 2.9 seconds showing on the clock. After two passes,
Emily Stone had a good look at a three-pointer to win it but her shot hit the front iron.
The game is the second straight two-point win for the Brewers over the Hawks. Last season, a buzzer beater resulted in a 67-65 Vassar victory.
Vonasek was the lone Hawk in double figures with 18 points. She shot 6-of-12 from the field in the contest, and also had a team-high seven rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
Jacqui Foreman added nine points, six rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
Vassar led for much of the first half of play although the Hawks kept the deficit to six points or less through the opening 12 minutes of action. A Drakeley jumper pushed the margin to seven marking the Brewers' biggest lead of the night with eight minutes left. The Hawks would net eight of the next 10 points however, to pull to within one on
Alicia Razanousky's layup with under five left.
The Hawks later tied the score at 22 with a Foreman layup but the Brewers outscored Hartwick 5-4 the rest of the half for a 27-26 lead.
Hartwick grabbed its first lead on a Vonasek basket 15 seconds into the second half.
Courtney Cirillo added a jumper followed by another from Vonasek and 'Wick led 32-27.
The Hawks held the advantage for more than six minutes until a Drakeley three tied the score at 34-34. The lead would change hands four times with four ties scores over the next eight minutes in a back and forth game.
Vonasek gave Hartwick its final lead with a pair of free throws with 6:44 remaining. The Brewers regained the edge, 43-42, two minutes later and held onto it for the next four minutes. They led by four but two straight Vonasek layups at 2:32 and :41 evened the game at 49-49 before Drakeley's layup put Vassar up to stay.
Razanousky contributed eight points for the Hawks in her first game of the season. She also had four boards, two assists, and two steals. Stone finished with seven points, a team-high four steals, three boards, and two assists.
Hartwick shot 35% (18-for-51) from the floor. Vassar was slightly better making 37% (20-for-54) as a group. The Brewers held a 44-31 edge on the glass.
Union 72, UTICA 40
The Utica College women's basketball team lost to host Union College 72-40 on Tuesday afternoon.
Samantha Stayer (Allegany, NY/Allegany-Limestone) netted a team-high nine points for UC, while
Bridget Greenwald (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Hills)added six points and a game-high ten rebounds.
The Pioneers' record moved to 4-5 overall headed into their Empire 8 Conference opener at home against St. John Fisher College on Friday night at 6 p.m. The Pioneers will then host Ithaca College at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Jenni Barra scored a career-high 23 points and added seven rebounds to pace Union. The Dutchwomen improved to 5-2 overall on the season. Barra's 23 was a game-high and she also had three assists and three steals. The freshman guard made nine of her 11 shot attempts. Kate Thompson had 12 points and tied her career-high with five blocks, while adding five rebounds and making six of nine shots.
Union forced 26 turnovers and shot 55% including 71% in the second half when the Dutchwomen made 17-of-24 shots.
Union jumped out to a 20-9 run in the first 7:44, and led by as many as 19 in the first half at 32-13 with 1:14 left. The Dutchwomen led 32-16 at halftime. In the second half, Union remained hot, as the Dutchwomen went on a 13-0 run in the first 4:19. Union led by as many as 37 at 64-27 with 5:07 remaining.
Utica's
Mary Miceli (New Rochelle, NY/New Rochelle) added eight points, four rebounds and three steals, while
Ashley Mayo (Nanuet, NY/Nanuet) chipped in with seven points.
Christy Traglia (Mohawk, NY/Mohawk) and
Ashelyne Babb (Lynn, MA/Winthrop) each registered four points for the Pioneers.