GENEVA, N.Y.—William Smith College senior
Melanie Patterson scored her 1,000th career point to lead the Liberty League leading Herons to a 75-65 victory over Vassar College tonight. William Smith seized the lead for good late in the first quarter and kept the Brewers at arm's length for the rest of the game.
Patterson scored four straight points during a 6-0 Heron run that pushed the home team's lead into double digits late in the second quarter. After making a pair of free throws to raise her career total to 998, she hit the milestone on a driving layup that gave William Smith a 42-30 lead. Patterson is the 16th Heron to score at least 1,000 career points and the first since Chloe Hayter in 2014. Patterson finished with 14 points.
Sophomore forward
Mia Morrison paced all scorers with 23 points for the Herons. She also had a team-high eight rebounds and three steals. Sophomore guard
Natalia Baum gave William Smith a season-high 19 points off the bench.
Vassar (9-9, 6-3) also had three players in double digits. First-year forward Sophie Nick recorded 22 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. First-year guard Isa Peczuh added 13 points and sophomore guard Nicole Teta had 11 points and eight rebounds.
William Smith (14-4, 8-1) took control of the game with 12 consecutive points that panned the first and second quarters. Four different Herons scored during the surge on the way to a 25-16 lead less than a minutes into the second quarter.
The Brewers closed the gap down to six, 36-30, with about two and a half minutes left in the half, but William Smith finished the half on a 10-2 run for a 46-32 halftime lead.
The Herons led by as many as 16 in the second half and only let its lead dwindle down to seven once, but Baum and first-year
Annaliese Schreder made back-to-back field goals quell the threat.
William Smith shot 47 percent from the field for the game and limited Vassar to 33 percent shooting.
Both teams will be back in action at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 28. The Herons will host Bard (0-16, 0-8), while the Brewers will travel to RIT (12-7, 5-5).
