It's a perfect 2-0 weekend for the St. Lawrence Saints women's basketball team, as they completed the road sweep of their two Liberty League opponents with a 59-47 win over William Smith Saturday afternoon in Geneva, N.Y.
The win was cemented with a strong fourth quarter in which the Saints outscored the Herons 21-10. With the victory, St. Lawrence is now 9-5 on the conference season and 10-10 overall. They have won five of their last six contests.
"We had some really big plays during crunch time today that gave us some separation right at the end," said head coach
Dan Roiger after the game. "We had big contributions off the bench and had some excellent execution several times that resulted in buckets. We also played well defensively. It wasn't perfect, but holding this team under 50 at home is very good."
"We continue to see growth and had to fight off a desperate William Smith team trying to get into the playoffs. It's these games at this time of the season that hardens your team."
The game began with barely any offense in the first five minutes – after duelling free throws,
Mason Baker-Schlendering earned the game's first bucket at 5:39 of the first quarter to make it 3-1. St. Lawrence maintained that two-point lead until the end of the quarter, and it was 12-9 heading to the break.
The Saints were steady in the second and maintained their lead, heading into halftime up five at 25-20. But Brooke Jarvis drained a three for William Smith right off the bat in the third, and it became a one-possession game for a good portion of the third quarter. The Herons even took a brief lead at 4:56 after back to back three-balls, but the Saints kept the score at 38-37 going into the fourth.
Following a white-knuckle third quarter, the Saints broke out for offense in the fourth and outscored the Herons by 11 to nail down the victory.
It was another monster game for Flynn, who led the Saints with 20 points and added 14 rebounds. Following a clutch lay-up to win Friday's game,
Cam Roberts had 12 points and added seven boards. Senior
Kristen Varin narrowly missed out on a double double, recording eight points and nine rebounds.
The Saints return home briefly this week with a non-conference matchup against SUNY Poly Tuesday evening, before heading out on the road for the continuation of Liberty League play at Ithaca and Union on the weekend of Feb. 9-10.