Alfred, Fisher, Ithaca and Stevens Top Opponents
ALFRED 64, Mount St. Mary 51
The Alfred University Saxons topped the Mount St. Mary Knights, 64-51, to split their early December road trip this weekend.
Harley Cleary led the Saxons to the victory Saturday afternoon, pouring 20 points into the net while seven rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Sophomore
Amanda Off was dominant in the paint notching a double-double with 17 points and 15 rebounds.
The Saxons gained a large lead midway through the first half, taking advantage of a 14-0 run over five minutes. A group of Saxons were on the offensive, with
Hailey Sick putting up four points in traffic. With :30 seconds to go in the half the Knights fought back within two points, but Cleary drained a three-pointer just seconds before the buzzer to give the Saxons a 34-29 advantage at the intermission.
The Saxons came out of the locker room ready to play and put the Knights away early. Within one minute Cleary hit two long range shots to put the Saxons up by nine and AU never looked back. The Saxons saw their largest lead with 9:53 to go in the game when they assumed a 14-point lead. Mount St. Mary would get back within five points, but as if on cue, the Saxons started to drop shots left and right. By the end of the game AU was leading by 13 with :22 seconds to go and carried that lead to the final, 64-51.
Freshman
McKaylee Croll distributed the ball all over the court notching 7 assists. Along with helping the Saxons on their 14-0 run in the first half, Sick grabbed 13 rebounds on her way to nine points.
Emilea Harrison had three steals and nine points.
ITHACA 63, St. Lawrence 57
The Ithaca College women's basketball program improved their record to 5-1 on the season with a 63-57 road victory against St. Lawrence on Saturday. Ithaca has now won five-straight games over St. Lawrence dating back to the 2010-11 season.
St. Lawrence scored the game's first basket 1:23 into the contest, but that was the last time the Saints would lead after sophomore
Ali Ricchiuti hit a pair of free throws at the 18:06 mark. From there, the Bombers put in three layups from seniors
Francesca Cotrupe and
Samantha Klie to open up an 8-2 advantage nearly five minutes into the matchup.
The Saints answered with four points to close to within two points at 8-6 with 14:35 remaining, but after a two-minute drought for both teams, Ithaca went on a 14-6 run over the next 4:44 to build a 10-point cushion at 22-12.
Ithaca stayed ahead by at least six points – and as many as 12 – over the final 7:53 of the half, and took a 32-26 edge into intermission.
In the second half, St. Lawrence opened with a 9-3 run to tie the contest up at 35-35 with 14:55 left in regulation. The Bombers would answer with an 11-0 run over the next 2:37 on four points each from sophomore
Erin Ferguson and freshman
Julie Yacovoni, and a three-pointer by senior
Ally Mnich.
St. Lawrence refused to go away after the 11-point deficit, and crept back to within four at 52-48 with 6:42 to go. Another three from Mnich and a layup from Ricchiuti pushed Ithaca's lead back out to nine just 40 seconds later on back-to-back possessions. After 1:30 ticked off the clock, Cotrupe gave the Bombers another 11-point advantage with a lay-in.
With the score now 59-48 and 4:34 left in the game, the Saints attempted one final comeback. The closest they could get, however, was 61-57 with 22 second remaining. Ithaca hit two free throws over the final 22 seconds, and St. Lawrence turned the ball over on its final two possessions.
Cotrupe led all players with 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting and completed a double-double with 12 rebounds (seven offensive). Freshman
Jordan Beers netted 12 points off the bench with a 5-for-7 afternoon and 2-for-3 from three-point range and added five rebounds.
Mnich had nine points on a perfect shooting day behind the arc (3-for-3), while Ricchiuti chipped in eight points with seven rebounds. Klie tallied five points, four rebounds and three assists for the Bombers.
Yacovoni played 11 minutes and finished with five rebounds, four points and two assists. Ferguson scored four points with three rebounds, and senior
Geena Brady contributed five rebounds and three points.
Ithaca shot 37.3-percent from the floor (22-for-59) and 5-for-12 from three-point range. The Bombers went to the free throw line 22 more times than St. Lawrence (30 to eight), but only made more (14 to five).
Ithaca also grabbed 16 more rebounds than its season average with 50 (19 offensive) on Saturday. The Bombers entered today's game averaging 34.2 rebounds per contest.
ST. JOHN FISHER 78, Geneseo 72
The fifth-seeded St. John Fisher college women's basketball squad shot 53 percent (11-for-21) from behind the arc to earn a come-from-behind, 78-72, victory over third-seeded SUNY Geneseo in the third place game of the Wendy's College Classic. It is the second straight year that Fisher has finished in third place.
The Cardinals move to 5-2 on the year, while the Knights fall to 2-3.
Fisher started slowly, making just two of its first twelve field goal attempts allowing Geneseo to jump out to an early 18-7 advantage.
Although Fisher started slowly from the field, four of its first five field goals were 3 –pointers, including two from
Emily Piacentini to bring the Cardinals back into the game.
McKenzie Bezon drilled an 18-foot jumper to tie the game at 19 at the 8:49 mark.
After the score was tied at 26, the Knights used a 9-0 run to take a 35-26 lead. Geneseo out-rebounded Fisher 24-10 in the first half but only led 37-31 at the break.
The Cardinals slowly cut into the Knights lead, fueled by two 3-point field goals from Bezon. Cusack put Fisher ahead 45-44 five minutes in.
Fisher continued to stay hot from 3-point land with Piacentini nailing her third of the game to extend the Cardinals lead to 54-50.
Piacentini converted her fifth trey at the 4 minute mark to help Fisher regain a 64-62 advantage. The Cardinals caused two consecutive turnovers, with each possession ending in layups from
Portia Velasco, to push Fisher's lead to 70-63 with 1:35 to play. Fisher did its job at the free throw line to close out the contest.
Velasco led all scorers with 20 points and a game-high five steals. Piacentini connected on 6-of-9 3-pointers en route to a career-high 17 points.
Cusack recorded a career-high eight assists to go along with 10 points.
Bridget Carney poured in 11 points and 6 boards.
STEVENS 72, Vassar 55
Junior
Kaitlyn Astelscored a career high 20 points Saturday to lead the Stevens Institute of Technology women's basketball team to a 72-55 win over Vassar College.
The win was Stevens' (5-1) fifth in a row while the loss snapped a four game win streak for Vassar (4-3).
Astel also led the Ducks with seven rebounds while junior
Miranda Ripken chipped in with 12 points and three boards. Sophomores
Brittany Washington and
Erica Guketlov each scored eight points.
The Ducks outrebounded Vassar 41-40 and shot a season high 46.6 percent from the field.
Stevens opened a 7-6 lead over the first four minutes before a 17-4 run over the next nine minutes gave them a double digit advantage. Ripken sparked the run with layups on back-to-back possessions, followed by jumpers from Astel with 13 and 11 minutes remaining.
The Ducks continued to ride their momentum and after a pair of free throws from Ripken brought the lead to 26-14, junior
Dylan Krause and Guketlov connected on a three and jumper respectively to give Stevens a 17 point lead with just under five minutes to go.
Vassar was able to answer with a 7-2 run over the next 80 seconds, but a layup from freshman
Sydney Darby in the closing seconds insured a 12 point Stevens lead going into the break.
Stevens maintained a comfortable lead to start the second half thanks to eight points over the first eight minutes from Astel. Layups from Washington with seven and six and half minutes remaining brought the lead to 19 before a pair of free throws from Petuskey made it 65-44.
A quiet 6-2 run from Vassar took the deficit to 16 with three minutes left, but that's as close at the Brewers would get the rest of the afternoon.
William Smith 80, NAZARETH 71
Bard 59, UTICA 53
Allegheny 74, HOUGHTON 39
Clarkson 84, ELMIRA 69