Hartwick and Ithaca Continue to Lead Conference Standings

2/8/2014 6:27:00 PM

Ithaca 77, St. John Fisher 43 (Box Score)
The Ithaca College women's basketball team (18-4, 10-1 Empire 8) won its 10th straight game Saturday afternoon defeating St. John Fisher (14-9, 6-6 Empire 8) 77-43 at Ben Light Gymnasium.

Despite Ithaca grabbing an early lead, the Cardinals held the Bombers close for the first 15 minutes of play. Ithaca went on to close out the first on a 12-4 run to lead 40-25 at intermission. Ithaca continued to dominate in the second, improving its gap to 20 at 10:25 and 30 at 3:11, before finalizing all scoring at 77-43. The win was the Bombers' second largest margin of victory this season.

Ithaca hit 89.5 percent of its free throws, 17-of-19, its second-best performance this season. It also connected on 45.9 percent of its field goals. Fisher hit 30.0 percent from the floor for the night.


Hartwick 72, Alfred 62 (Box Score)
Hartwick shook off a pesky Alfred team erasing an 11-point first-half deficit for a 72-62 victory on Saturday evening at the McLane Center in Alfred, NY. The Hawks improve to 18-4 overall and remain at the top of the Empire 8 Conference at 11-1.

Hartwick trailed 24-13 with 5:10 left in the first half of play, but the Hawks opened the second half out-scoring the Saxons by a 30-12 margin to take command.

The game did not start the way the Hawks had hoped as they made just six baskets and turned the ball over eight times in the opening 20 minutes. 'Wick did, however, take an early 7-2 lead after a pair of free throws from Kate Purcell with just over two minutes gone. But the Hawks went cold after that as they managed just two free throws over the next nine minutes of action. Brittney Dumas finally ended the drought at 8:45 with a layup but the Saxons led 15-11.

A 9-2 run put the hosts up by their biggest margin, 24-13, with 5:10 left in the half, but Hartwick would respond with a big 17-4 run to close the half with a 30-28 lead. Maria Foglia had a pair of and-ones in the run and a two Purcell free throws with 58 ticks left put the Hawks up to stay.

Layups from Dumas and Lee Arduini and then back to back and-ones from Taylor Vonasek and Dumas in the opening 1:27 of the second half widened the gap to 12 points, 40-28. Alfred came back with a three but the Hawks would rattle off 11 of the next 14 points to go up seventeen points with five minutes gone in the half.

Hartwick maintained its big lead, pushing the margin to 20 following a jumper from Courtney Cirillo at 7:50 and the Hawks never led by less than 15 until just over two minutes remained in the game. With the game in hand, the Saxons out-scored the Hawks 14-5 over the final three minutes to get the score down to ten at the final horn.


Nazareth 55, Houghton 45 (Box Score)
Nazareth improved its record to 8-13 after defeating Houghton College Saturday afternoon.  Houghton fell to 6-15 in the loss.  The Golden Flyers came back from a 29-27 half-time deficit to defeat the Highlanders 55-45.

Houghton led by as much as eight points in the first half.  With 5:07 remaining in the opening stanza, The Highlanders were up 27-19.  A basket by Hannah Runyon and a three-pointer by Julia Brew brought Nazareth with in three, 27-24 with 4:23 remaining.  Houghton scored again at 2:39 to make the score 29-24.  Lindsey Kelly brought the Golden Fllyers back with-in two on a three-point play making the score 29-27 at the end of the half.

After four scoreless minutes at the start of the second half, Brew tied the score 29-29 with 15:57 to go.  Melissa Reeves and Maria Allocco each scored to give the Golden Flyers a four point lead, 33-29 with 13:47 left in the half. 

Nazareth held the Highlanders scoreless for nearly 9:30 from the end of the first half until 13:09 in the second.  Houghton tied up the score 33-33 with 10:41 left before Nazareth went on a 7-3 run to take a four point lead with 6:56 left to go.

The Golden Flyers continued to build on their lead, going up by as much as nine points with 1:10 left in the game, 49-40.  The Highlanders trimmed that lead down to six with just :41 left but were not able to get any closer.


Stevens 62, Elmira 46 (Box Score)
The Stevens Institute of Technology women's basketball team led from the opening tip of a 62-46 Empire 8 Conference victory at Elmira College on Saturday afternoon in Speidel Gymnasium.

Freshman Erica Guketlov got things started for the Ducks with a long ball just 14 seconds into the game which sparked the Ducks to go on an 11-3 run over the first 3:40. Neither team scored for the next 3:19 until Elmira hit a three-pointer to cut its deficit to 11-6.

Stevens went back up by eight points, 14-6, on a basket from sophomore Kaitlyn Astel midway through the half. The Ducks built a 10-point cushion, 20-10, up to the 6:36 mark of the half, but the Soaring Eagles would climb back to within four at 20-16 in a 1:20 span.

After that, the Ducks scored 11 unanswered points to account for their largest lead of the opening 20 minutes at 31-16 with two minutes left in the half. The first half ended with a 14-point spread, 34-20.

Elmira sank a pair of free throws to start the second half, but Stevens responded with an 8-0 run to go up by 20 points, 42-22, with 14 minutes left in regulation. The Soaring Eagles brought the game back to within 16 points at 42-26, but that was the closest they could get until the final basket of the contest.

SCHOOL	CONF	OVERALL
Hartwick	11-1	18-4
Ithaca	10-1	18-4
Stevens	8-4	15-7
Elmira	6-4	14-6
St. John Fisher	6-6	14-9
Nazareth	2-8	8-13
Alfred	1-9	6-15
Houghton	0-0	6-15
Utica	0-11	5-15
Houghton is an NCAA provisional member and is not eligible for postseason. Games against the Highlanders will not impact conference records/standings.