Albany, NY –The Sage College's women's basketball team hosted the Hawks of Hartwick College on Thursday night in Kahl Gym in a non-conference contest. The contest marked the return of former head coach Jackie Craft to Sage as the visiting coach for the Hawks. The Gators posted the convincing 64-45 win as senior guard Megan Bowman (Dannemora, NY/Saranac) added a game-high 20 points. With the win Sage improves to 5-3, while Hartwick drops to 1-6.
Hartwick led 28-27 at the break and the Gators came out at halftime and Bowman collected back to back buckets to give Sage a 31-28 lead with 19:13 left in the game and never trailed the rest of the night. Sage led by as many as 23 points, 64-41 with 0:52 left to play and had a balanced attack to record the key win. Bowman had 13 second half points and was 4-7 from the floor with a 4-5 effort from the line. By night's end, she had a season-high 20 points with six rebounds, and eight assists.
Rookie forward Genevieve Schoff (Little Falls, NY/Little Falls) added 13 points and seven boards as she shot 50.0% from the floor (5-10) with two assists, two steals and a blocked shot. Senior forward Amie Jefferson (Albany, NY/Colonie Central) connected for seven points with nine boards and a game-best four blocked shots to help the Gators hold a 41-35 edge on the boards.
Senior Carlee Hirt (Beacon, NY/John Jay) added 12 points off the bench as she was 4-6 from the floor.
Hartwick's junior forward Taylor Vonasek (Willington, CT/Edwin Oscar Smith) paced her team with 14 points and eight rebounds, while sophomore Emily Stone (Granby, CT/Granby) finished with eight points and four rebounds.
Bowman is making her steady climb in the Gator record book and now has 810 career points and is currently No. 8 on the all-time career scoring list. She also has 366 assists and 205 steals. She is sole possession of the No. 4 spot in career steals, while ranking No. 2 all-time in career assists.
Jefferson moved into the No. 3 position in career rebounds as she now 630 boards and is closing in on the No. 2 spot (633, Susanne Booth, 1994-1998) in rebounding and continues to add to her own record for career blocks that is now 138.
The Gators are not back in action for a month and will play next on January 9 when they host Farmingdale State in the Skyline Conference opener for the defending league champions.
On Saturday, December 6, Sage's men's team will host Rams of Farmingdale State at 2 p.m. in the Kahl Gym. At halftime of the contest, Sage will hold a banner raising ceremony to commemorate the championship banners from the 2013-2014 season that included the 2013 men's soccer and 2013 women's volleyball Skyline Conference regular-season championships and the 2014 softball Skyline Conference regular-season title. Additionally, the 2013-2014 women's basketball team will be honored for their Skyline Conference Championship and the team's 2014 NCAA Tournament appearance.