Fisher knocks off Ithaca, 54-49
Stevens tops Utica 64-55
St. John Fisher 54, Ithaca 49
The St. John Fisher College women's basketball program rallied from a double-digit deficit and gave Empire 8 Conference rival Ithaca College its first league loss, as the Cardinals battled back for a 54-49 win over the visiting Bombers on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, Fisher improves to 13-4 overall and 6-2 in the Empire 8 Conference, while Ithaca falls to 13-4, 7-1. It is the best start to a season for the Cardinals since the 2005-2006 season.
Ithaca led by 11 late in the first half, but the Cardinals went on a 5-0 spurt over the final 40 seconds of the opening period with
Claire Walsh draining a 3-pointer from the corner at the buzzer to pull Fisher to within six at 28-22.
Fisher stayed hot to start the second half, scoring the first 14 points to take a 36-28 lead with 13 minutes left with a free throw from
Emily Piacentini capping the 19-0 run.
Fisher led by as many as 10 points at 41-31 after a deep 3-pointer from Walsh with 10:52 left, but the Bombers came storming back.
Ithaca went on a 9-0 run to pull within one point at 41-40 with just under seven minutes left, but Fisher never relinquished its lead.
Senior
Portia Velasco scored the next seven points for Fisher to put the Cardinals back up seven with five minutes.
Ithaca pulled to within three points on two different occasions in the final moments, but couldn't get any closer.
Bridget Carney blocked a shot late in the game and junior
Mary Kate Cusack scored Fisher's final seven points at the foul line to seal the win.
Fisher shot 39.1 percent from the floor for the game, while the Bombers shot 25.9 percent for the contest, including 15.2 percent (5-for-33) in the second half.
Velasco led the Cardinals with 18 points, while Cusack finished with 17. Senior
Sydney Bloomstein totaled a team-best three steals.
McKenzie Bezon finished with a team-high eight rebounds.
Stevens 64, Utica 55
Eleven different players scored for the Stevens Institute of Technology women's basketball team Saturday as the Ducks knocked-off Utica College 64-55.
The win was the third straight for Stevens and moved its record to 14-2 (8-1). With the loss, Utica fell to 9-10 (5-5).
Junior
Megan Petuskey led the Ducks with a career high 12 points while juniors
Kaitlyn Astel and
Miranda Ripken chipped-in with 11 and 10 points respectively. Sophomore
Brittany Washington just missed a double-double with eight points and nine rebounds, while junior
Dylan Krause added five rebounds, three assists and two steals.
As a team, Stevens shot 45.9 percent from the field and forced 16 Utica turnovers.
The Ducks jumped out to a 12-4 lead over the first six minutes thanks to a pair of field goals on back-to-back possession by Ripken. Stevens continued to build the lead with a 14-5 run, punctuated with a jumper from Ripken during the six minute mark to put the Ducks up 26-9.
Utica answered with an 11-0 run to get them to within six with under a minute remaining, but a layup from Astel off a pass from Ripken gave the Ducks the 28-20 lead they would take into the break.
The Ducks continued to maintain their lead at the start of the second half before extending it to12 three minutes in off a jumper from Astel. A layup from freshman
Megan Brown five minutes later put the Ducks up 15, followed by a layup from Petuskey midway through to make it 16.
Uitca did manage to cut the Stevens lead to nine off a three pointer with five minutes to go in regulation, but jumpers from Petuskey and Ripken over the last four minutes kept the Ducks ahead by double-digits. Free throws from Astel and Brown in the final minute clinched the Stevens win.