Courtesy: Fisher Athletics
For the second time in the last three seasons, the nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College women’s basketball has clinched the Empire 8 Regular Season Championship following the team’s 69-39 win over Utica College on Saturday afternoon at the Clark Athletic Center. With the win, Fisher, which is ranked 23rd in the latest D3hoops.com national poll, has now earned the right to host the upcoming Empire 8 Championship as the Cardinals improved to 22-2 on the year and 14-1 in league play. The Pioneers closed out the weekend at 18-5 overall and 9-5 in the Empire 8 standings.
Freshman Sidney Tomasso led the way for Fisher with a game-high 16 points to go along with two rebounds and a pair of steals. Claire Kruszka added 12 points, four assists and three boards of her own while Kaitlyn Walker contributed nine points and seven rebounds in 16 minutes. Leah Koonmen produced six points and nine rebounds while Amy Gardner collected 10 rebounds and handed out four assists for Fisher.
After building an 8-point lead to begin the second quarter, Fisher held Utica scoreless for nearly seven minutes while stringing together a 12-0 run to open up a 19-point edge with just over a minute go before the break.
Facing a steep climb, Utica would score back-to-back buckets to cut the gap to 15 points at halftime, 31-16.
As the third quarter got underway, Utica would find a rhythm and pulled to within 11 with 3:36 showing on the clock, but the tempo would slow for the Pioneers as the Cardinals orchestrated an 11-0 run including five points from Tomasso to claim a 49-27 advantage with 10 minutes remaining in the game.
Holding a 22-point cushion to begin the fourth, Fisher continued to fire on all cylinders and built a 32-point lead following 10 straight points. From there, the Cardinals controlled the tempo over the final five minutes of play to close out the 30-point win.
As a team, Fisher was 27-of-65 from the field and held the Pioneers to just 29.4 percent shooting in the game. The Cardinals enjoyed a 48-31 advantage on the glass and forced Utica in to 24 turnovers in all.
Fisher will have one final tune-up before the postseason as it caps off its regular season schedule at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday against Elmira College.
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