The St. Lawrence women's basketball topped RIT 61-43 on Friday evening in Canton, N.Y.

Ava McCann had 15 points and Olivia Middleton tied her season high with 13 off the bench to lead the scoring for the Saints. Dylan Watkiss connected on three 3-pointers and dished four assists to help facilitate the offense.

Tied at 22 midway through the second quarter, the Saints closed the half on a 5-2 run to go into the break up 27-24.

The Saints never trailed in the second half, but the Tigers kept it a one possession game for a good portion of the third quarter. Back to back 3-pointers by Watkiss gave St. Lawrence an eight-point cushion with just under six minutes left in the quarter. A few minutes later after trading buckets Abby Doin hit a floater to give the Saints their first double digit lead at 44-34. They went into the final break leading 45-37.

McCann opened the fourth period with a shot beyond the arc, and RIT was not able to reduce their deficit to single digits for the rest of the game. With just under a minute to play Emma Plumley dribbled into a deep two to give the Saints their biggest lead of the ballgame at 61-41, and the final score read 61-43.

"We had a very poor performance in the first half, we had little energy and were unfocused on defense," head coach Dan Roiger said. "We responded really well in the second half and played much more intense defensively in the second half. We had another great effort on the boards, maybe our best of the season in terms of physically boxing opponents out. Special kudos to Olivia Middleton and Sierra Sanson who really invigorated our team with great play, and I thought Dylan Watkiss played incredible defense on a really good player. Really difficult game for us tomorrow, this time of year in our league, they are all tough. Every game is a challenge, the teams know each other so well and are prepared, it just comes down to execution."

RIT was led by Alyssa Juergen's 16 points, and Sarah Henretta added a dozen.

The Saints controlled the boards, coming down with 46 rebounds, 15 of which were on the offensive end to extend possesions. Katie Frederick had a dozen, in addition to her eight points. RIT had 25 rebounds.

Records: St. Lawrence (13-1, 7-1), RIT (7-6, 4-4)
Up Next: William Smith at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 22^nd in Canton, N.Y.