Women's Basketball | 1/7/2022 7:40:00 PM
TROY, N.Y. – The nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College women's basketball team scored 23 points off of turnovers on Friday and remained perfect on the season after defeating host Russell Sage, 62-52, in an Empire 8 contest inside Kahl Gymnasium. With the win, Fisher, which is ranked 19th in the latest D3hoops.com national poll, improved to 10-0 on the year and 2-0 in the conference standings while the Gators slipped to 4-6, 0-1, respectively.
Sophomore Claire Kruszka stuffed the stat sheet with a game-high 21 points, six rebounds, six steals and three assists while Sidney Tomasso added 10 points and five boards of her own over 22 minutes. Leah Koonmen chipped in with eight points and a season-best nine boards while Kaitlyn Walker produced seven points and six rebounds in the win.
The Gators controlled the pace early as the home team built a nine-point lead in the first quarter before the Cardinals chipped away and eventually claimed their first lead midway through the second quarter with a jumper from Lauren Nawojski that made it 20-19 in the visitors' favor.
From there, neither team was able to sustain its lead as the advantage changed hands six times before a 3-pointer from Emily McLaughlin and a free throw from Nawojski staked the Cardinals to a 29-26 edge at the break.
Fisher carried over its momentum to begin to second half and used a 15-2 run that included six straight points from Tomasso to open up a 16-point cushion, 44-28.
Facing a steep climb, the tides shifted as the game wore on with the Gators bridging the third and fourth periods with a 17-2 burst that cut the gap to one, 46-45, with 6:36 still showing on the clock.
With the lead hanging in the balance, Fisher regrouped as an old-fashioned three-point play from Walker led to seven straight points and 55-47 lead for Fisher with under four minutes remaining in the game.
Leading by eight, the Gators looked to make a move, but had no answer for Fisher at the other end as the Cardinals converted 3-of-4 free throws in the final minute to remain atop the league standings.
As a team, Fisher had 12 assists on 22 field goals and forced Sage in to 21 turnovers overall. Head coach
Melissa Kuberka's squad enjoyed a significant advantage on the glass after out-rebounding the Gators, 47-31.
Fisher will go for its 11th win of the season at 2 p.m. on Saturday when it heads to Oneonta to take on the Hartwick College Hawks in another conference bout.