BOSTON, Mass. – Sophomore Julia Mertsock scored a career-high 24 points as the St. John Fisher College women's basketball team continued to roll on Sunday with a 76-68 win over the host Saints as the Cardinals won the Emmanuel College Tip-Off Tournament.  With the win, Fisher remained unbeaten and closed out the day at 3-0 while nationally-ranked Emmanuel slipped to 1-1 with the defeat.

Mertsock, who was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player following the win, was 10-for-15 overall with six rebounds.  Ella Eckert finished one rebound shy of a double-double with 18 points and nine rebounds to go along with five assists and three steals while Leah Koonmen added 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists.  Senior Alex Reigle had five helpers off the bench while Amy Gardner provided five points and four boards in the win.  Both Koonmen and Eckert were named to the All-Tournament Team for their efforts.

It was a back-and-forth opening quarter as the lead changed hands five times over the first six minutes of play until the Cardinals took control with a 12-2 run spurred by five straight points from Koonmen to make it 18-10.
With under three minutes to play in the opening stanza, Emmanuel weathered the storm and closed out the period with a 6-2 run of its own to trail Fisher by four heading into the second quarter.

Neither team was able to string together a big run in the second as Fisher was able to maintain a two possession lead over the first eight minutes of play.  With just under two minutes left before halftime, the Cardinals began to find a rhythm as Fisher scored eight of the game's next 10 points before a buzzer-beater by the Saints staked Fisher to a nine-point cushion at the break.

As the third quarter got underway, Mertsock pushed the Cardinals' edge to 12 points with a 3-pointer off a feed from Harper Mead.  From there, the visitors' lead remained at double-digits until Emmanuel orchestrated a 7-2 run over the final five minutes of play to make it 55-49 with 10 minutes still to play.

Leading by six in the fourth quarter, Fisher saw its lead slip to four following a basket in the paint by the Saints, but the Cardinals showed their poise and ripped off an 8-2 burst to push the lead back to double digits, 67-57, with under five minutes showing on the clock.

With time working in Fisher's favor, Emmanuel was never able to mount much of a comeback effort as the Cardinals sealed the win at the free throw line.

Overall, Fisher was 28-for-58 (.483) from the floor and 14-of-19 at the charity stripe.  The Cardinals out-rebounded the Saints, 40-32, and turned their opponent over 13 times.

Fisher will put its three-game winning streak on the line at 6 p.m. on Thursday when it travels across town to R.I.T. to play the University of Rochester in the fourth annual Mark's Pizzeria Crosstown Shootout.