Women's Basketball | 1/8/2022 4:45:00 PM
ONEONTA, NY – The Hartwick women's basketball team built an insurmountable lead and held off a late fourth quarter rally from the visiting Cardinals to hand No. 19 St. John Fisher their first loss of the season on Saturday. The 65-56 victory brings Hartwick to 7-3 (2-0) and drops St. John Fisher to 10-1 (2-1).
Hartwick's Mikyla Mitchell led all scorers in the game with 15 points, followed closely by Maggie Kirby and Daniella DeBiase with 14 apiece. Defensively, Hartwick forced 18 turnovers and out-rebounded the visitors 42-39. The Hawks led by as much as 21 and only trailed one time in all 40 minutes (trailed by 1 point midway through the first quarter).
St. John Fisher was led by Claire Kruszka who netted 12. Amy Gardner and Leah Koonen each chipped in 11 of their own. Koonen fell one rebound short of a double-double in the contest.
Hartwick got the scoring started less than a minute into the game when Isabella Astorino took a pass from Daniella DeBiase for an easy layup. St. John Fisher's only lead of the game came just a few minutes later but Hartwick kept the pressure and took the lead for good at the 5:33 mark with a DeBiase triple. Sereena DiCerbo's fast break layup at :30 gave Hartwick the 9 point advantage after the 1
st period of play.
The second stanza didn't see much scoring, but Hartwick was able to grow their lead by another 6 points. More impressive than the 15 point lead Hartwick built after the second period was their defensive efforts in that time. Hartwick allowed just 3 baskets the entire second quarter.
Hartwick came out of the locker room and scored the first 6 points to build up a 21 point lead less than two minutes into the second half. That was a critical advantage because the Cardinals began chipping away at that lead over the final quarter and a half to bring themselves within striking distance towards the end.
The Hawks pushed their 15 point advantage back to 19 at the 5:12 mark of the 4th period, but an impressive 9-0 run by the Cardinals brought it down to a 10 point game with 2:44 to play. They cut it to 7 with a minute and a half remaining and appeared to have momentum, but Hartwick's free throw shooting made all the difference. Extending the game by fouling, Fisher sent Daniella DeBiase to the line 8 times in that final 90 seconds, and she connected on 6. She recorded the teams final four points from the line to seal the game.
In addition to DeBiase's 6 makes, Maggie Kirby and Mikyla Mitchell each knocked down 2 of their own. The Hawks were 10-16 from the free throw line in that final stretch after having just 10 attempts in the previous 38 minutes.
With the win, the Hawks grab their third consecutive victory and setup a showdown of the only two unbeaten teams in conference play on Tuesday. The Hawks travel to Utica College and will look to give another team their first overall blemish of the season. The Pioneers are a perfect 11-0 (2-0) so far on the season. That game will tip off at 5:30pm.