Ithaca used a hot-shooting first quarter to defeat the St. Lawrence University women's basketball team 60-51 in Liberty League action Friday night. 

The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for the Saints as they fall to 11-11 overall and 9-6 in the Liberty League. They are fourth in the league with the playoffs right around the corner, holding a two game lead over RIT. 

"I really liked the growth we exhibited in the second half of the game," said Dan Roiger, the Saints' head coach. "We clinched a playoff spot tonight. Our goal is to be playing our best basketball during the postseason and we took some steps forward tonight towards that goal. Ithaca is good and they made some plays when they needed to. Our goal is to compete with these upper echelon teams and we are getting closer." 

The Saints found themselves down 33-23 at halftime, playing the Bombers strongly in the second quarter after trailing 19-9 after the first. Ithaca maintained a significant possession advantage in the first quarter, out-rebounding the Saints 22-14. Cam Roberts had a team-high eight points going into the break. 

The third quarter saw the Saints shrink the Bombers' the lead to as low as four points, but the Bombers would continually answer with points on the other end. St. Lawrence found themselves down 46-38 at the end of the third. 

The final quarter continued to be back-and-forth with the Saints once again cutting the lead to four on multiple occasions, but they were unable to get any closer. With the Saints trailing 57-51 with 1:45 remaining in the game, the Bombers hit a dagger three-pointer to put the game out of reach. 

Leading scorers for the Saints were Elizabeth Flynn and Roberts with 15 and 12 points respectively. Jackie Malley was also in double figures with 10 points and also had three assists.  

The Saints will look to rebound tomorrow afternoon as they take on Union in Schenectady, N.Y.