Caelan McHarney had another landmark day, posting a career-best 27 points in her final collegiate basketball game as the St. Lawrence University women's basketball team had their season come to an end Tuesday night. The fifth-seeded Saints dropped a 78-68 decision to fourth-seeded RIT on the road in their Liberty League first-round matchup.

The Saints have now had their season end in the first round of the conference tournament in each of the last three seasons. They have qualified for the postseason for five consecutive years.

"In the playoffs, you need to play well to win. Credit to RIT, they played great tonight and we did not," said Dan Roiger, the Saints' head coach. "A big part of that was our defense, we made a lot of errors and when we did, they made shots."

"I thought we came out very cautious to start the game. We were playing not to lose instead of playing to win. That put us in a hole early. We played even basketball for the final 35 minutes, but just couldn't get caught up."

The Tigers came out hot to start the game, scoring six unanswered points to take an early lead. Sophomore Norah Niesz got the Saints' first points when she knocked down a three to get them on the board. RIT maintained their lead through the quarter, junior Hannah Van Dyke hit a jumper to put them within four but the Tigers answered right back making it a 19-13 game to end quarter number one.

RIT ramped up the pressure on the Saints in the second, turning their six-point lead from the first quarter into a 16-point lead with five minutes left in the half. Then, St. Lawrence received two free throws from sophomore Elizabeth Flynn, and McHarney scored the next eight points to make it a 35-25 deficit at halftime.

In the third, the Saints attempted to close the gap. Junior Jackie Malley got things started, as she knocked down a three to put them within seven. The Tigers maintained their lead and got it back up to 13 with 3:27 left to go. Junior Mason Baker-Schlendering hit a turnaround shot to fight back, and after a couple of made free throws from the Saints the Tigers held an 11-point lead heading into the last quarter.

The fourth started with Ben Kayser-Cochran hitting a three for RIT to put them up 14. The Saints kept fighting back and slowly chipped away at the lead throughout the quarter, with Malley knocking down two free throws to put them back within six with 1:12 left to go in the game. This is as close as they would get, as the Tigers held onto their lead and closed out the game 78-68.

McHarney led the way with 27 points and nine boards, while Malley chipped in 16 points and Flynn put up a double-double with 11 rebounds and 10 points.