The St. John Fisher College women's basketball program began its Empire 8 Conference title-defense on Friday night with an 86-47 win at Elmira College in the Cardinals' Empire 8 season opener.

With the win, Fisher, currently receiving votes in the D3hoops.com national poll, improves to 8-2 overall.

Senior Bridget Carney led the Cardinals with a season-high 17 points and nine rebounds, as all 12 players on the Fisher bench scored, including freshman-transfer Jenna Miner

It was a back-and-forth first quarter with Elmira holding the lead in the opening moments, but Fisher took the lead for good at 14-11 with 2:42 left in the first on a 3-point-play from Nicole Robinson.

The Cardinals led 18-15 after one quarter, but opened the second period with an 11-1 run, highlighted by two 3-pointers from Mary Kate Cusack and one from fellow senior Claire Walsh to put the Cardinals up 29-16 with five minutes left in the half.  Following an Elmira timeout, the Soaring Eagles answered with a 5-0 run to pull within eight, but Fisher closed out the half with a 10-2 run to take a 39-23 lead going into the locker room.

After seeing its lead cut to 13 in the third quarter, Fisher closed out the third frame with a 13-3 run to take a 57-34 lead going into the fourth and kept the momentum for the last 10 minutes.

Cusack finished the game with 13 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals.  Caroline Robertson tallied 12 points, seven rebounds and three steals, while freshman Erin Hulbert, the reigning Empire 8 Rookie of the Week, added 11 points and four steals.
 
Fisher returns to action at 4 p.m. on Saturday at Houghton College.