Ithaca, Nazareth, Fisher gain easy victories
St. John Fisher 79, Elmira 38
The St. John Fisher College women's basketball team gave up just 38 points, as the Cardinals cruised to a 79-38 win over visiting Elmira College on Friday evening at Fisher's Bobby Wanzer Court.
With the win, Fisher improves to 15-5 overall and 8-3 in the Empire 8 Conference, while the Soaring Eagles fall to 7-11, 4-6.
Fisher jumped out to a 7-0 lead over the game's first seven minutes, but the Soaring Eagles scored the next seven points, knotting the game at 7s with 11 minutes left in the first half.
Fisher went on an 11-0 run over the next five minutes to take a double-digit lead for the remainder of the game. Senior
Sydney Bloomstein scored six points during the critical spurt, while
Emily Piacentini tallied the other five points.
Fisher led 32-16 at the half, forcing Elmira to commit 15 first-half turnovers, while the Soaring Eagles shot just 4-of-18 (22.2%) from the floor.
The Cardinals kept up the strong defensive play in the second half, holding the Soaring Eagles without a field goal for a span over 15 minutes.
Four players finished in double figures, led by
Mary Kate Cusack, who tallied 15 points. Piacentini tallied 14 points, while Bloomstein totaled 13 points and three blocked shots.
Portia Velasco tallied 12 points, while freshman
Lunden Cunningham chipped in with nine points and eight boards.
Bridget Carney led Fisher with nine rebounds, while senior
Meghan Ermi scored a career-high five points.
Fisher returns to action next weekend for the final two home games of the 2014-2015 regular season. The Cardinals will host Houghton College at 6 p.m. on Friday and Nazareth College at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Prior to the start of Saturday's game, Fisher will honor its four graduating seniors.
Nazareth 81, Alfred 61
Nazareth dominated host Alfred in Empire 8 women's basketball action Friday, shooting nearly 47 percent from the field in an 81-61 triumph. In addition to defeating the Saxons for the second time this season, Nazareth junior
Lindsey Kelly also surpassed the 1,000-point mark in career scoring. She finished with a game-high 27 points and now ranks 12th all-time at Nazareth with 1,015 points.
With the win, Nazareth improved to 12-7, 7-3 in the Empire 8. Alfred drops to 4-16, 1-11. The Golden Flyers return to action Saturday to play at Elmira at 2 p.m.
Kelly was virtually instoppable for the Golden Flyers as she made 11 of 14 shots from the field and went 5-for-5 from the free-throw line. She also grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds. She leads the Godlen Flyers in scoring (15.9 ppg.) and rebounding (9.4 rpg.) for the season and is among the Division III leaders in field goal accuracy at 60.6 percent (126-for-208).
Freshman
Samantha Peebles also had a strong game for Nazareth as she connected for a career-high 14 points, including a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line. . Junior
Sam Sorge also finished in double figures with 10 points.
The first half was back-and-forth before
Kelly Broderick scored a three-pointer at 7:39 to give the Golden Flyers a 25-24 lead. Nazareth then went on a 14-3 run to take a 12-point lead with 2:09 left in the first half (39-27).
The Golden Flyers were up 41-29 at the half.
Nazareth continued to build on its lead when Sorge and Kelly combined for nine points to open the second half and take a 50-29 lead while the Golden Flyer defense held the Saxons scoreless. Nazareth held its largest lead of 27 points with 8:00 remaining in the game.
Nazareth made 27 of 58 shots from the field and went 24 for 28 from the foul line (85.7 percent). Nazareth also enjoyed a 50-30 rebounding edge. Nazareth got 33 points from its bench, including the 14 by Peebles and eight by
Julia Brew. Junior point guard
Veronica Peck finished with eight points and five assists. Harley Cleary was Alfred's high scorer with 18.
Ithaca 60, Houghton 38
The Ithaca College women's basketball team picked up a convincing 60-38 Empire 8 Conference win at Houghton on Friday evening. Ithaca is now a half-game ahead in Empire 8 standings with an 11-1 mark and is 17-4 overall with its fourth consecutive win.
The Bombers shot 45.0-percent in the game (27-for-60) and forced 26 turnovers, 16 from steals, which led to 21 points. Ithaca also tallied 32 points in the paint as well as 32 points from the bench.
Junior Keri Steele paced Ithaca with 13 points on 6-for-7 shooting to go along with four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Ithaca and Houghton traded baskets over the opening eight points of the game in a span of 2:07, but the Bombers would then score five straight points to take a 9-4 edge with 16:48 left in the half. The Highlanders battled back with nine unanswered points to sustain their largest advantage of the game at 13-9 with 11:52 remaining.
From there, the Bombers took control of the contest with a 14-2 run over a stretch of 5:33 which resulted in a 23-15 cushion. During the run, freshman Jordan Beersaccounted for eight points on a pair of three-pointers and a layup. Sophomore Erin Ferguson put in two layups and senior Geena Brady notched the other basket.
Beers scored all eight of her points in the game in 1:19. She also finished with two rebounds and two assists. Ferguson contributed six points and five rebounds, while Brady posted seven points in 11 minutes played. Both Ferguson and Brady went 3-for-4 from the field.
Houghton climbed back to within five points, 25-20, with 3:49 to play, but Ithaca would outscore the Highlanders, 7-2, the rest of the way and took a 32-22 lead into halftime.
In the second half, Ithaca gradually increased its margin up to 20 points by the 10:21 mark. The Bombers maintained that difference for the rest of the game with one exception at 51-33 with 8:15 to go. Ithaca's largest lead of the game took place with 2:53 remaining on a bucket from freshman Allison Spaschak to run the score to 60-36.
Sophomore Alex Gilligan notched seven points with three assists and three steals for Ithaca. Freshman Julie Yacovoni added five points, five rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Sophomore Ali Ricchiuti chipped in four points and a game-high five assists.
Spaschak, seniors Francesca Cotrupe, Samantha Klie, sophomore Shayna Gaskins and freshman Sage VanAmerongen all scored two points.