CANTON, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College women's basketball team got off on the right foot as the Cardinals claimed a 62-58 win over St. Lawrence in their season-opener on Saturday in a non-conference tilt inside Ronald T. Burkman Gymnasium.  With the win, Fisher will head into next week with a 1-0 record while the Saints will continue their search for their first win as they're now 0-1 following the loss.

Sophomore Miranda Lynch had the hot hand with a game-high 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting including five from behind the arc.  Leah Koonmen finished with eight points, six rebounds and three assists while Ella Eckert added eight points and a team-leading nine rebounds in the win. 

The Cardinals got out of the gates quickly and built a 10-4 lead over the host Saints following a 3-pointer from freshman Harper Mead.  From there, the visitors' lead would grow to nine points after Amy Gardner found Alex Reigle for a 3-pointer to make it 13-4.

As the opening frame wore on, Fisher continued to kick the ball out as Koonmen sank a triple to stake the Cardinals to an 11-point advantage, 19-8, but the momentum began to swing as St. Lawrence closed out the period on an 8-3 run to head into the second quarter trailing, by five, 24-19.

Still holding a two-possession lead, the Cardinals stretched their hold to seven points before a 3-pointer from the Saints cut it to a four-point game.  Leading 26-22, freshman Anna Milham made her presence felt as the Mechanicville native scored five quick points to push the margin back to nine, 31-22. 

As the quarter wound down, St. Lawrence began to find its stride as the home team scored nine of the game's next 11 points to pull to within two before back-to-back threes by Lynch fueled an 8-point run to close out the first half with Fisher on top, 41-31.

Lynch and the Cardinals continued to roll in the third quarter as the Webster native buried another triple to make it 44-33 in Fisher's favor with 8:16 left to play in the stanza.  Following back-to-back buckets by St. Lawrence, Lynch drained another triple before four straight points from Julia Mertsock staked head coach Melissa Kuberka's squad to a 51-39 lead.

Trailing by double figures, St. Lawrence continued to push the tempo down the stretch and closed out the third quarter with an 8-1 run to keep it close heading into the final frame, 53-47.

Clinging to a six-point advantage with 10 minutes left to play in the game, the Cardinals went cold from the field while St. Lawrence drained a jumper to climb to within one point, 57-56, with under four minutes to go.  Ahead by just one, the Cardinals went to work as Eckert drained a bucket in the paint before Lynch sank two key free throws to stake Fisher to some breathing room with under a minute to go.  The Saints would keep it close with a pair at the charity stripe, but would run out of time as the Cardinals held on for the win.

As a team, Fisher was 20-of-65 (.308) from the floor with half of their makes coming from distance.  The team pulled down 43 rebounds and forced St. Lawrence in to 19 turnovers.

Fisher will be back in action at 1 p.m. next Saturday when it travels to Boston, Mass. to take part in the Emmanuel College Tip-Off.  The Cardinals will take on Husson University on Saturday before playing either Emmanuel or St. Joseph's Brooklyn the following afternoon.