The St. John Fisher College women's basketball team held on to beat visiting Utica College 77-76 tonight in an Empire 8 Conference matchup.
With the win, Fisher improves to 14-10 overall and 9-7 in the Empire 8. The Cardinals will return to action at 6 p.m. on Friday and will play host Ithaca College in the semifinals of the Empire 8 Conference Championship. Utica falls to 18-6, 11-4 and will play its final regular-season game on Sunday against Elmira College.
Fisher, who led by as many as 16 points with 18 minutes left, needed to score six of the game's final seven points over the last two minutes to pull out the win.
Utica led 75-71 with just under two minutes to go, but the Cardinals pulled to within one on a three-point-play from
Amanda Lax with 1:54 left.
After two missed free throws by Utica, the Cardinals took the lead back at 77-75 on another three-point-play, this time from
Colleen Maloney with 51.4 seconds left. The basket came on Fisher's fourth shot of the possession.
Utica's Meghan Fiore made one-of-two free throws with 36 seconds left for the game's final points. Fisher attempted two shots on its final possession, but failed to score. Utica's Jessica Berry snagged a defensive rebound with three seconds left and attempted a 3-pointer from just inside half court as the horn sounded, but the shot came up well short.
Fisher scored a season-best 47 points in the first half and led 47-33 at intermission. The Cardinals scored the first eight points of the game and
Bonny Gardner's layup with 13:49 left, gave the Cardinals a 15-3 lead.
The Cardinals pushed their lead to 16 points on two free throws from
Stephanie Sweeney with 17:52 left, giving her team a 51-35 advantage, and led 56-41 with 15:55 left, but the Pioneers came storming back. Utica used an 18-3 run over the next five minutes to tie the game at 59-59 with 10:04 left on a bucket from Justine Karst.
The Pioneers took their first lead of the game with 4:04 left on a 3-pointer from Berry, giving her team a 71-70 advantage.
Berry led all scorers with 31 points, while Devon Croll added 19 points and four steals.
For Fisher, Maloney tallied a team-best 20 points. Lax added 12 points, while
Kristi Jeffres finished with 11 points and eight rebounds. Senior
Kristen Taliento also scored in double-figures, finishing with 10 points.
