SAINTS FALL TO NO. 16 WILLIAM SMITH, 75-67

Feb. 2: Five members of the St. Lawrence University women’s basketball team scored in double digits but it wasn’t enough to lift the Saints past Liberty League opponent William Smith, as the Herons defeated St. Lawrence 75-67 Saturday afternoon in Geneva, NY.

The Saints are now 14-4 overall and 4-3 in the Liberty League and are currently tied for third place in the conference heading into the second half of Liberty League play. Meanwhile, William Smith, who was recently ranked 16 th in a number of national polls, snagged their 13 th straight win to improve their overall record to 16-1 and their conference record to 7-0.

While St. Lawrence was able to keep it a tight game, the Herons did not want to relinquish any lead they had, as William Smith increased their first half lead to as many as eight before the Saints would go on a 7-0 tear to make it a one point game. The Scarlet and Brown earned their first lead of the half with 6:52 on the clock after a lay-up from first year Abby Stanton ( Avon, NY/Avon Central) to give them a 23-22 edge over the Herons.

William Smith would quickly regain a slight advantage and hold on to it until the final seconds of the half when senior co-captain Jamie Wolff (Buffalo, NY/Nardin Academy) made a lay-up to give the Saints an exciting 35-34 lead with 23 seconds left, which they were able to hold on to until the buzzer.

A much more persistent Saint squad came onto the court for the final 20 minutes as they were able to hold on to their lead throughout most of the first 15 minutes, which included a game-high 10 point lead with 12:17 to go. The Herons were unable to be contained as they went on a 16-5 run to tie the game 60-60 with 6:05 left in the contest. Stanton shot two from the line to give the Saints their last lead before William Smith’s Latasha Coney shot a three to spark nine unanswered points, and with that, the Herons battled throughout the final moments to come away with a 75-67 win.

Wolff led the Saints’ offense with 19 points and eight rebounds, while Stanton repeated her performance from last weekend, tying her career-high 13 points in a game. Stanton shot 5-for-6 from the field, which included a shot from beyond the arc, and was also perfect from the line, shooting 2-for-2 in only 18 minutes on the court.

Also scoring in the double digits included junior Lauren Sischo (Rodman, NY/South Jefferson) who accumulated 11 points, while classmate Katie Palmer (Bourne, MA/Falmouth Academy) and senior co-captain Kim Sikule both posted 10 a piece.

St. Lawrence will travel to Clarkson University on Tuesday night for their second meeting of the 2007-2008 season. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:00pm.