Albany, NY- The Sage Colleges' women's basketball team hosted the Warriors of Eastern Connecticut State University on Monday night in Kahl Gym in a non-conference game. The contest marked the first meeting of Sage's Head Coach Allison Coleman against her alma mater and her former coach and mentor, Denise Bierly. Coleman is in her third season at Sage as the head coach after graduating from ECSU in 2004 and serving as an assistant under Bierly for four seasons before departing for Sage during the summer of 2014. Sage emerged with a 67-60 win to improve to 8-6 on the year, while the Warriors drop to 7-5.
Sage led 28-22 at the half and led by as many as 17 points in the third quarter before the Warriors mounted a run and pulled with three points down, 56-53 with 2:33 left to play. The Gators answered back with a three-point basket by rookie guard Gessica Patregnani (Troy, NY/Lansingburgh), and a pair of made free throws by both sophomore guard Emily Parslow (Fonda, NY/Fonda-Fultonville) and senior guard Frankie Pearson (Hoosick Falls, NY/Hoosick Falls Central) to Sage hold a 10 point lead (63-53 with 1:23 left to play).
For the game, Sage got 17 points from both Pearson and Parslow, while junior forward Genevieve Schoff (Little Falls, NY/Little Falls) added a double-double on 13 points with 12 rebounds. The double-double is the fifth of the year for Schoff, who now has 15 career double-doubles and continues her climb of the program's record book. Schoff has 816 career points and 522 rebounds is 10th in scoring and seventh in rebounding. After Monday's effort, Pearson has 896 career points putting her sixth on the scoring list after moving ahead of Susanne Booth (889, 1994-1998). Pearson added five rebound with three baskets from three-point range as the Gators combined to shoot 50.0% from three-point range (8-16).
ECSU's senior center Lexis Foster (Groton, CT/R.E. Fitch Sr.) added a double-double as she tallied a game-leading 18 points with 13 rebounds and seven blocked shots. Senior guard Julia DePoi (Brookfield, CT/Brookfield) also tallied a double-double after adding 13 points and 15 rebounds with four blocks and three steals.
The Warriors combined for 13 blocks and held Sage to just 20 points in the paint and added 38 points in the paint with 28 second chance scores.
Sage is back in action on January 11 hosting the Mariners of U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at 5:30 p.m. in a Skyline Conference contest in Kahl Gym. Eastern Connecticut State University hosts UMass-Dartmouth in a Little East Conference match-up also on Jan. 11 at 5:30 p.m.