GENEVA, N.Y.—The William Smith College basketball team snapped St. Lawrence University's eight-game winning streak with a 55-52 Liberty League win in Bristol Gym tonight. The Herons for only about eight minutes in the game, but took the lead for when it counted the most on a 3-pointer from the corner with under two minutes remaining.
William Smith (12-8, 8-5) held a slim 51-50 lead as the clock ticked under three minutes, but first-year Olivia Barringer completed her team-leading 18-point, seven-rebound performance with a layup to put St. Lawrence up one with two minutes to go. On the Herons' ensuing possession, sophomore
Stella Davis caught a pass in the corner in front of her team's bench and swished a trey with a hand in her face for a two-point lead for the home team.
For more than a minute, both teams went scoreless, combining to miss seven shots. William Smith got possession with under 20 seconds left and the Saints (14-6, 10-3) were forced to foul. Junior
Stavriana Dimitrakopoulou made the front end of the two shot foul to complete the day's scoring with nine seconds remaining. She recorded 16 points and a game-high nine rebounds. The Herons enjoyed a 44-39 edge on the glass tonight.
SLU led 15-11 at the end of the first quarter and carried a 30-24 lead into halftime.
William Smith's comeback started in the third quarter, where they outscored the visitors a modest 19-16. The Herons turned up the defensive pressure in the fourth quarter, limiting the Saints to just six points to rally for the win.
William Smith shot 30.9% from the floor with five 3-pointers and 53.3% from the line. The Herons never trailed by more than six points in the game and never led by more than three. The game featured nine lead changes and six ties.
St. Lawrence shot 41.1% for the game, but just 21.4% in the decisive fourth quarter. The Saints missed all 18 of their 3-point tries. It's the first time in at least 179 games that SLU hasn't made at least one 3-pointer. (Season stat reports only go back to 2013-14 on saintsathletics.com)
William Smith sophomore
Olivia Parisi was 8-of-13 shooting and finished the night with a team-high 18 points. Davis and first-year
Lauren DeVaney each contributed eight points. DeVaney collected eight boards. Senior
Emma Gallagher dished out a team-high five assists, notched a game-high four steals and pulled down seven rebounds.
Junior Katie Frederick was the only other Saint in double digits, scoring 12 points to go with seven rebounds. First-year Olivia Middleton added eight points and a game-high six assists.
William Smith will be back in action at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8, hosting Clarkson (7-12, 3-10). The Golden Knights were on the short end of a 67-54 decision at RIT tonight.
The loss denied St. Lawrence a chance to clinch a Liberty League playoff berth and knocked the Saints out of a first place tie with Ithaca, whose game at Rensselaer was postponed due to the weather. The Saints will travel to RIT (9-11, 7-6) tomorrow for a 2 p.m. tipoff.
