Purchase, NY- The Sage Colleges' women's basketball team visited the Panthers of Purchase College on Saturday afternoon for the final Skyline Conference regular-season contest. The Gators rolled to a convincing 89-43 win, improving to 17-8 overall and 13-5 in the league, while Purchase drops to 2-22 overall and 1-17 in the conference. While Sage has already secured a spot in the upcoming six-team field for the 2017 Skyline Conference Tournament. Sage earned the No. 3 seed and will host U.S. Merchant Marine Academy on Feb. 21 at 7 p.m.
Link to Skyline Women's Basketball Tournament
Days after joining Sage's 1,000 point club, senior guard Frankie Pearson (Hoosick Falls, NY/Hoosick Falls Central) added a team-leading 17 points in the contest. She buried five three pointers and added two steals and assist for the day. She has 1,017 career points putting her in the fifth spot on the all-time scoring list. She continues to add to her career resume having now played in a program-best 104 games with another mark for the most three-pointers, which now stands at 185 after smashing the old record of 126 in her junior season.
Two more players connected for double-digit scoring in the road win as junior forward Genevieve Schoff (Little Falls, NY/Little Falls) and sophomore guard Emily Parslow (Fonda, NY/Fonda-Fultonville) added 14 points and 12 points, respectively. Schoff hauled in eight rebounds with three assists and two steals, while Parlsow added six rebounds and handed out six assists in the action.
Schoff is the next Sage player making her run at 1,000 career points as she is now sixth in career scoring with 996 points. She also boasts 640 career rebounds and moved into the third spot at Sage ahead of Susanne Booth (633 rebounds, 1994-1998). She is also taking aim at the Sage career record for most made free throws as she has 295 in her time at Sage, just six shy of surpassing the 300 set by Jocelyn Naple (1994-1998).
Sophomore guard Macie Holmes (Amsterdam, NY/Meekeel Christian Academy) added nine points, while junior forward Alyssa Nellis (Johnstown, NY/Johnstown) added eight points off the bench.
As a team, Sage combined to shoot an impressive 50.7% from the floor and was even hotter from three-point range converting 13 of 25 attempts (52.0%). He 13 made three pointers in the contest ranks No. 3 all-time, just 2 shy of tying the program's single-game mark of 15 set earlier this season when these two teams met back on January 17. Sage was also in total control on the boards as they held a +23 margin with 50 rebounds to the Panthers' 27 on the afternoon.
Sage earned the third seed of the six-team tournament. The first round of the six-team tournament opens on Tuesday, February 21 with a pair of first round contests, while the semifinals will take place on Thursday, February 23 as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeded teams will host the winners of the first round contests. The championship game is slated for Saturday, February 25 at the home court of the highest remaining seeded team after the semifinals. The Skyline Conference champion will garner an automatic bid to the 2017 NCAA Division III championship.