Women's Basketball | 12/11/2021 8:33:00 PM
BUFFALO, N.Y. – Head coach
Melissa Kuberka became the third coach in program history to eclipse 100 career wins on Saturday as the nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College women's basketball team pushed its winning streak to eight games following a 65-56 win over Buffalo State in a non-conference tilt inside the Sports Arena. Fisher, which is ranked 25th in the latest D3hoops.com national poll, improved to 8-0 on the year while the Bengals fell to 5-4 overall.
With the win, Kuberka, who piloted Fisher to its 1,000 overall win last night following a victory over Clarkson University, edged her own career mark to 100-53 (.654) in just her fifth season at the helm of the Cardinals.
Freshman Katie Moravec paced Fisher with a career-high 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting off the bench while senior Miranda Lynch finished with 16 points, six rebounds and three assists. Anna Milham added nine points and six rebounds of her own while Claire Kruszka netted seven points to go along with nine boards, two dimes and a steal.
After trimming a 13-point deficit down to seven points heading into the break, Fisher looked to turn the tides as the third quarter got underway. Lynch cut the gap to five points with a lay-up as Fisher rattled off nine of the game's next 11 points including an old-fashioned three-point play by Sidney Tomasso to cut the deficit down to one with 7:31 still showing in the period.
Trailing 36-35, Fisher continued to work its offense with Kruszka finding Milham in the corner for a 3-pointer that pushed the Cardinals ahead, 40-39.
With time winding down in the quarter, the lead would change hands two more times over the final four minutes with Fisher holding a slim advantage, 50-49, to begin the fourth.
With 10 minutes remaining in regulation, both teams would battle down the stretch with the lead trading sides four times over a seven-minute stretch until a basket by Moravec sparked a 10-0 run to close out the game with Fisher ahead, 65-56, at the final horn.
The Cardinals will enjoy a long break before returning to action at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 4th when they jump into Empire 8 play against Alfred University inside Manning and Napier Varsity Gymnasium on Bobby Wanzer Court.