Albany, NY–Sage's women's basketball team hosted the Rams of Suffolk University on Saturday afternoon in a non-conference contest in Kahl Gym. Suffolk University used a strong third quarter to beat Sage, 88-79 for the win to improve to 8-3. The loss puts Sage at 4-7. The contest had one player from each team finish with 30 or more points as Suffolk's junior guard Jennie-Rose DiCecco (Falmouth, MA/Falmouth) finished with 30 points and graduate player Kaitlyn Bowman (Chateaugay, NY/Saranac) had a career-best 33 points.
Suffolk took a two-point lead into the locker room at the intermission, 41-39 as sophomore guard Allie Lopes (Scituate, MA) had a layup with five seconds left in the half. The Rams came out in the third quarter to go on a 20-2 run to lead by as many as 20 points, 61-41 (5:41) in the quarter. Sage cut the lead to 16 by the end of the third quarter, trailing 69-53. In the fourth quarter Sage outscored the Rams 26-19, and cut the lead to four points with 1:59 left to play (77-73) but could not get any closer down the stretch.
For the game, both Bowman and DiCecco had 14 first half points apiece. Bowman was 5-6 from the floor and 4-4 from the line in the first half, while DiCecco was 5-14 from the floor with a 3-4 effort from the line with one three-point basket. In the second half, Bowman was 4-5 from the floor, while making 15 trips to the free throw line and making 11 of them with 19 second half points for the Gators.
Suffolk's junior forward Gabriella DeComo (Portsmouth, RI/Portsmouth) added 17 points with seven rebounds, while Lopes finished with 13 points with five assists and three steals.
Sage's sophomore guard Sammy Pasinella (Troy, NY/Mechanicville) added 18 points, while senior tri-captain Megan Flynn (Hoosick Falls, NY/Hoosick Falls Central) collected 13 points and added a team-best nine rebounds in the contest. Senior tri-captain Gessica Patregnani (Troy, NY/Lansingburgh) was 2-3 from three-point range and added eight points with six rebounds as Sage held a commanding edge on the boards, 46-32 over the Rams.
Sage's Bowman surpassed the 800 career point plateau on Saturday as she checks in with 820 points and is 12th all-time in scoring at Sage. Her 657 rebounds puts her fourth on the career list. The 33 points scored in a game is the most this season for an Empire 8 player on the 2019-2020 season and marks the fourth time in Sage women's basketball history a player has scored 33 or more points.
Flynn checks in with 634 career points, while adding 517 rebounds. She surpassed Kelly Murphy for the No. 8 spot in rebounding (516, 1999-2002).
Patregnani now has 611 career points with 134 career three-point baskets. She is currently fourth all-time at Sage in career three-pointers made. This season is among the three-point shooting leaders as she is shooting 27-40 this year. As of January 1, she is the NCAA Division III shooting leader with her impressive 67.7% effort and after Saturday's contest owns a 67.5% shooting percentage through 11 games this season.
Sage will be in action on January 7 travelling to Utica College for a 7:30 p.m. Empire 8 contest. Suffolk University will host MIT next on January 9 in a 6 p.m. contest.