Albany, NY—The Sage College's women's basketball team hosted the Knights of Mt. St. Mary College on Tuesday night in a Skyline Conference game. Prior to the contest Sage honored their six senior members of the team in conjunction with Senior Night. Senior guard Megan Bowman (Dannemora, NY/Saranac) provided the spark to help lift the Gators to the 56-55 victory. Sage is now 17-5 overall and 9-2 in the Skyline Conference, while MSMC drops to 9-14 overall and 4-7. With the win on Tuesday, the 2014-2015 Gators have watched their school-record win streak grow to 11 games and in doing so tied the mark for most wins in a season set last year as the squad went 17-11.
Bowman, who finished with only 11 points in the contest, provided the go ahead points at 1:31 as she tied the game with the first of two free throws, 53-53. She sank the second free throw and gave Sage a 54-53 lead. She picked off a steal at 1:08 and proceeded to hit a layup at 1:05 to give Sage a 56-53 lead. MSMC's sophomore guard Marissa Delzio (Brewster, NY/Brewster) hit a jumper at 0:44 to pull the Knights within one. Bowman attempted a three-pointer with 14 seconds left to play before senior guard Lauren Romao (Brick, NJ/Point Pleasant Beach) hauled in the rebound and a missed layup at the buzzer failed to connect to preserve Sage's win on Senior Night.
Bowman now has 1,024 points on her career, just three shy of moving into the No. 3 spot currently held by Elizabeth Pearl (1,026, 1987-1991). Bowman added five assists with four steals in the contest, elevating her to 438 career assists (No. 1) with 246 steals (No. 2).
Senior Sara Tironi (Cambridge, NY/Cambridge Central) added 12 points with nine boards after shooting 4-for-5 from the floor. Tironi now has 596 career points with 403 rebounds, which is No. 13 on the career rebounding list at Sage.
Senior center Amie Jefferson (Albany, NY/Colonie Central) added a double-double with 11 points and a game-high 13 rebounds with three blocked shots. Jefferson holds the Gator career block mark with her 158 blocks and is No. 2 in career rebounding with 761 rebounds. Rookie forward Gen Schoff (Little Falls, NY/Little Falls) added nine points for the night with five rebounds.
MSMC's got 16 points from Delzio as she led all scorers and had 12 second-half points to pace the Knights in the contest. Senior forward Natalie Candarelli (Cortlandt Manor, NY/JFK Catholic) added a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while junior guard Nicole Scicutella (Massapequa, NY/Massapequa) added 11 points with four assists and three baskets from long-range.
Sage returns to action on February 19 hosting Bard College in a 7 p.m. non-conference contest, while 7 hosting Mt. St. Mary College travels to Baruch College for a 7 p.m. non-conference contest.
