Jackie Malley hit seven three-pointers en route to a season-high 21 points as the St. Lawrence women's basketball team claimed the title game of the Westfield Gas and Electric Tip-Off Tournament 70-64 against the Westfield State Owls on Saturday afternoon in Westfield, Mass. 

The Saints' undefeated record remains intact as they finish November 6-0, despite enduring a tough test against the tournament hosts, who had a 4-1 record entering the game. This remains the Saints' best start since 2021-22, when the Scarlet and Brown were Liberty League finalists. 

"Outstanding tournament for us! It started yesterday when we had some really nice contributions from our bench that allowed us to stay fresh and rested for today, because we knew what Westfield State was going to bring," said Saints head coach Dan Roiger.
 
"We did an outstanding job taking care of the ball today. In their previous five games, Westfield State was forcing an average of 42 turnovers and their low was 28, so for us to only have 21 was excellent. I also thought we did excellent work on attacking after we broke the press and made good decisions of getting layups or kicking out for threes. Controlling the boards was also critical for us. We also worked hard all game long. It was a solid team win for us against a really good opponent!"

The Owls offense was efficient early, as the Owls made their first five field goals to quickly jump out to a 10-5 lead, then led 15-8 by the five-minute mark. However, Westfield's offense cooled off in the second half of the quarter, which allowed the Saints to chip into the lead and with less than a minute remaining in the quarter, Norah Niesz connected on a three to tie it up at 19. On their next possession, a buzzer-beating three-point field goal by the Owls gave Westfield a 22-19 lead after the first.

The second quarter was high scoring once again, with the Owls corralling a 26-21 lead with 7:49 left in the half. However, the Saints went on a 9-2 run after this. Mason Baker-Schlendering had a pair of short-range jumpers and a three from Niesz gave the Saints their first lead of the game 30-28 with 5:38 left in the quarter. Caelan McHarney added four points in this run, as the Saints walked to the locker room with a 39-32 lead at halftime.

Malley had nine points at the break, and the Scarlet and Brown shot 6-for-14 from beyond the arc, outrebounded the Owls 26 to 18, and had 12 assists on 14 made field goals.

In the second half, the Saints got the ball back to Malley who made her fourth three-pointer of the night and the Saints went up by 10, 44-34 with 7:42 left in the third. In the last two minutes of the quarter, the Owls got their offense going, out-scoring the Saints 8-2 and the St. Lawrence lead was trimmed down to 50-46 after three quarters.

In the fourth quarter, Westfield got the first two points, but then two threes from Malley and one from McHarney got the St. Lawrence lead back up to 59-51 with 7:47 in the game. However, Westfield went on a 11-2 run and the Owls controlled the lead for the first time in the second half, 62-61 with 2:19 to go.

But St. Lawrence continued to use the arc to their benefit. The following possession, Malley stayed hot with another three-pointer. Two possessions later, St. Lawrence found Annie Perry open at three and she nailed it to put the Saints up 69-64. The Saints held on to the final buzzer to claim their sixth victory of the year.

McHarney finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists, tying a career high in the latter category. Elizabeth Flynn led the team with 12 rebounds and had three assists to go along with eight points.

The Saints will resume Liberty League play two weekends from now where they will play host to the Rensselaer Engineers on Friday, December 6.