Jackie Malley had 18 points, and the St. Lawrence University women's basketball team put up 25 points in the first quarter, ultimately defeating the Middlebury Panthers 62-52 in a non-conference game Tuesday night in Burkman Gymnasium. 

Heading into the contest, Middlebury was 14-4 and second place in the NESCAC with a 4-1 record. The Saints improve to 11-6 with a 6-1 record against non-conference foes.

"We defended well tonight," said Saints head coach Dan Roiger. "We had some hiccups with allowing offensive rebounds, but otherwise we did a great job on their top two offensive threats, holding them to a combined 8-28 from the field. On offense we made shots in the first half and looked great. In the second half we couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, and ended up taking some poor shots at times. We had excellent ball control at the end and made free throws to keep the lead comfortable." 

"We have had an up and down season," he added. "We've learned some lessons on the way, but we have played decent basketball in the last few weekends. We will try to continue to get better game by game and see what we can do at the end of the season."  

Even though the Panthers controlled a 10-9 lead four minutes into the first quarter, the Saints poured it on with a 15-0 run highlighted by six points from Elizabeth Flynn. St. Lawrence ended the quarter commanding a 25-12 lead, shooting 60 per cent and connecting on four of five three point attempts.

After balanced play in the early portion of the second quarter, the Saints scored nine straight points and earned northwards of a 20 point advantage as the score was now 36-15 with 2:49 left to go in the half. Middlebury scored the last four points of the half, but the Scarlet and Brown were still nearly doubling the Panthers, 41-22. 

In the late stages of a low-scoring third quarter, Middlebury went on a 7-0 run to close the gap to 14 points, but Malley got a jumper to go with under a minute left and St. Lawrence was up 52-36 heading into the fourth.

Now under heavy pressure from the Panthers, the Saints found themselves in some trouble after the Panthers outscored them 13-3 over the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter, bringing the game within single digits 55-49 with three minutes left. After a timeout, St. Lawrence was able to break the press much easier and held the Panthers in check defensively. Caelan McHarney, Norah Niesz, and Malley all scored in the final minutes of the 62-52 victory. 



In addition to Malley, Niesz and McHarney were both in double figures with 11 and 10 points respectively. Flynn had 11 rebounds while Mason Baker-Schlendering had a career-best 10.  The Panthers were held to just 25 per cent shooting from the field on the night. 

The Saints will begin the second half of Liberty League play starting with Bard College on Friday, January 31 at the home of the Raptors. St. Lawrence handled Bard soundly in their first matchup 64-34.