GENEVA, N.Y.—The 23rd-ranked William Smith College basketball team used its high-pressure defense to overwhelm Ithaca College 58-47 in Bristol Gym tonight. The Herons, who won for the sixth straight time, made a season-high 16 steals as the Bombers committed 30 turnovers, a season-high for a William Smith opponent.

The Herons (9-1) needed every bit of their stingy defensive effort, as they produced a season-low 58 points. Junior guard Latasha Coney (Lyons/Lyons, N.Y.) paved the way on both ends of the floor, recording team-highs in points with 14 and steals with five. Senior guard Marisa Vespa (Immaculate Heart/Watertown, N.Y.) contributed 13 points, while sophomore forward Erin Cunningham (Morris Knolls/Rockaway, N.J.) added 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Sophomore guard Katherine Bixby (Germantown Friends/Philadelphia, Pa.) paced Ithaca (7-7) with a game-high 18 points, including four three-pointers, while backcourt mate Lindsay Brown (Immaculate/Danbury, Conn.) was the only other Bomber to hit double digits in the scoring column with 11. While Ithaca had trouble holding onto the ball and shot just 30.6 percent from the floor, the visitors did hold a 39-32 advantage in rebounds thanks in large part to senior center Erika Steele's (Hopkinton/Hopkinton, Mass.) game-high 11 boards.

William Smith opened the game with a 12-0 run as the Bombers missed their first eight field goal attempts of the game. Ithaca answered with a 7-2 surge to make it a 14-7 contest, but the Herons pushed back with an 8-2 run to restore their double digit lead with seven minutes left in the opening half.

Brown made it a nine-point game with 74 ticks left on the clock, but Coney hit a layup as time expired, sending William Smith into halftime with a 28-17 lead. Ithaca hit just 17.4 percent of its shots in the stanza, a season-low for a Heron opponent.

Bixby hit a three-pointer to start the second half scoring, whittling William Smith's lead down to 28-20. At the other end of the floor, graduate student guard Paula Foote (Sidney/Sidney, N.Y.) struck from behind the arc to restore the double digit lead, an advantage the Herons did not relinquish from the 17:40 mark on.

William Smith begins Liberty League play on Jan. 18, when the Herons travel to Rensselaer. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.