Pittsford, NY–The Gators handed Nazareth College a 76-72 home loss on Saturday and with their win secured a spot in the 2020 Empire 8 Women's Basketball Tournament. Sage is now 13-11 overall and stands at 9-4 in the league, while Nazareth drops to 16-8 overall and 8-5 in the conference. Sage led 39-31 at the half and held the Golden Flyers at bay despite their fourth quarter run as they scored 25 points in the final stanza. Sage swept Nazareth this season and with the win on Saturday, have now secured the team's second Empire 8 post-season berth. The Gators' first E8 appearance was in 2017-2018 after they secured the No. 2 seed. The 2019-2020 Empire 8 regular-season wraps on February 22.
Graduate player, Megan Flynn (Hoosick Falls, NY/Hoosick Falls Central) added her 17th career double-double after scoring 22 points with 14 rebounds. Flynn leads Sage with 10 double-doubles this season. She shot 9-12 from the floor in game and added two assists with two steals.
Sage got 15 points from both junior forward Madasyn Bush (Pottersville, NY/North Warren Central) and sophomore guard Sammy Pasinella (Troy, NY/Mechanicville). Bush added eight boards in the game, while Pasinella picked up five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Sophomore guard Meghan Murray (Watervliet, NY/Watervliet) added 10 points and seven boards to help in the team's road win.
Another of the Gators, graduate performer, Kaitlyn Bowman (Chateaugay, NY/Saranac) picked up 14 points with five rebounds, four assists and a steal. Bowman now boasts 988 career points with 776 rebounds in 106 career games played. She is poised to become the eighth player in program history to join the 1,000 points club and is now tied for third in career games played after making her 106th appearance on Saturday. She ranks fourth in rebounding, and now has made 270 career free throws, which is third on the career record book at Sage. She is also poised to become the first sister tandem at Sage to have 1,000 or more career points as he sister, Megan Bowman (2011-2015) is sixth in scoring with 1,080 points.
Flynn now has 822 career points and is now tied for 13th in scoring, while her 651 rebounds is fifth.
Nazareth was paced by the play of Jadyn Abrams, who poured in 42 points to tie the Empire 8 single-game scoring record. She made 13-of28 shots with four three pointers and was 12-13 from the line in the contest.
Sage will host Utica College on February 22 at 4 p.m. in Empire 8 action to wrap the regular-season. Sage will honor their 2020 seniors on Saturday in conjunction with Senior Day.
