GENEVA, N.Y.—The William Smith College basketball team earned a hard-fought conference victory as it defeated RIT 66-58 this evening in Bristol Gymnasium. The Herons move to 3-7 on the season and 1-2 in the Liberty League, while the Tigers fall to 4-6 on the season and 2-1 in conference play.
Senior
Lauren DeVaney led the Herons with 18 points and 10 rebounds, earning her third double-double of the season. DeVaney went a perfect 10/10 from the free throw line, breaking the program record for best free throw percentage in a single game.
TEAM TOTALS
- Rebounds: William Smith 46, RIT 42
- Assists: William Smith 14, RIT 11
- Turnovers: RIT 15, William Smith 12
- Steals: William Smith 9, RIT 8
- Blocked Shots: RIT 4, William Smith 0
HERON STAT LEADERS
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Herons came out firing as sophomore Molly Walsh hit a deep three-pointer to start off the game.
- William Smith shared the ball well in the first, finding points from five different players to give the Herons a nine-point lead heading into the second.
- The Tigers would claw their way back into the second, cutting their deficit to two within the quarter. DeVaney would be the answer the Herons needed as she added six of her 18 points within the second quarter.
- RIT would continue to fight back to keep William Smiths lead to just two going into the second half.
- The Tigers and the Herons would trade points to start the second half, but RIT would find themselves in foul trouble early on in the second half.
- William Smith would show strong shooting from the line as they shot 71.4% as a team and pushed their lead to eight heading into the final 10 minutes.
- Walsh hit her third three-pointer to start the final quarter on a good note for the Herons.
- William Smith continued to look strong from the free throw line in the final 10 minutes as sophomore Maddie Patrick converted three points from the line.
- Juniors Brooke Jarvis and Fiona Horan would combine for 10 points and five rebounds in the second half to help the Herons to its first conference victory of the season.
COACHES CORNER
"Tonight was a really good win for us heading out of the winter break," Head Coach
Lindsay Sharman said. "We came out really strong defensively and getting multiple back-to-back stops helped us jumpstart our offense and pushed the tempo of the game. I think we played a complete game and hit our free-throws down the stretch which helped us close out our first win of 2023."
UP NEXT
William Smith will be back in action tomorrow as it welcomes No. 25 Ithaca in a conference matchup. Tip off between the Herons and the Bombers is set for 2 p.m.
