Feb. 11, 2012

Oneonta State women's basketball wins the "Battle of the Red Dragons"
Szkotak and Slagle lead hosts to 14th conference win

After a frantically-paced opening twenty minutes of action, the Oneonta State women's basketball team settled in and maintained its first half cushion en route to a 72-62. Seniors Samantha Szkotak (New York Mills/New York Mills) and Madison Slagle (Rome/Rome Catholic) posted matching 19's in leading the home Red Dragons to the victory.

As much as Oneonta tried to put the game out of reach in the second half, Cortland kept coming back. Leading the charge for the rivals was senior Molly Byrne. Her deadly shooting from long range single-handily kept Cortland close. She scored a game high 24 points on the strength of eight three-point baskets in 10 attempts.

Oneonta led by as many as 17 points on two occasions in the second half and Cortland got as close as nine points with :32 remaining in the game.

Today's first half resembled a track meet with continuous end-to-end action. Both teams were not shy about where their shots were being taken from as the two teams combined to take 24 three-point shots in the opening twenty minutes of play. Cortland took more (14), but Oneonta hit more (7) en route to building a 43-31 lead at halftime. Slagle (13 points) and Szkotak (12 points) we're already in double figures.

There were nine lead changes in the game, all coming in the first half. The last lead change came at the 6:20 mark on a Slagle layup, which gave Oneonta a 26-24 lead.

Senior Brittany Cohen led Cortland and all scorers in the half with 14 points.

Oneonta will be at SUNY Potsdam this coming Tuesday evening for the next to last game of the regular season. Tipoff is scheduled for 6pm.

Newspaper Box Score
ONEONTA STATE 72, SUNY CORTLAND 62

SUNY CORTLAND (13-9/8-7)
BYRNE, Molly 8-10 0-0 24; COHEN, Brittany 4-18 4-6 14; VOLPINI, Micki 2- 0-0 6; SHINE, Sarah 2-3 0-0 4; MAYCUMBER, Megan 1-3 1-2 3; RANDO, Brittany 1-5 0-0 3; WOLSTENHOLME, Erin 1-4 0-0 2; MINOR, Lindsey 1-2 0-0 2; DAVENPORT, Katrina 1-4 0-0 2; TOUHEY, Megan 0-3 2-2 2; McKEE, Rosie 0-0 0-2 0; DeMARCO, Brooke 0-1 0-0 0; MORRIS, Tashia 0-1 0-0 0; BIORDI, Ally 0-6 0-0 0. Totals 21-62 7-12 62.

ONEONTA STATE (16-6/14-2)
SLAGLE, Madison 7-17 2-2 19; SZKOTAK, Samantha 7-15 3-3 19; CRAWFORD, Alyshia 2-3 2-4 8; SCHILLING, Grace 2-5 2-2 6; LONGTO, Sarah 3-5 0-0 6; WILVERDING, Kate 1-5 3-4 5; MULLIGAN, Kelly 1-1 3-4 5; PAPPALARDO, Kristin
0-6 2-2 2; SIMPRI, Vania 0-1 2-2 2. Totals 23-58 19-23 72.

3-point goals--SUNY Cortland 13-36 (BYRNE, Molly 8-10; COHEN, Brittany 2-10;
VOLPINI, Micki 2-2; RANDO, Brittany 1-3; MINOR, Lindsey 0-1; DAVENPORT, Katrina 0-1; TOUHEY, Megan 0-1; DeMARCO, Brooke 0-1; MORRIS, Tashia 0-1; BIORDI, Ally 0-4; WOLSTENHOLME, Erin 0-2), Oneonta State 7-19 (SLAGLE, Madison 3-7; CRAWFORD, Alyshia 2-2; SZKOTAK, Samantha 2-4; WILVERDING, Kate 0-3; PAPPALARDO, Kristin 0-1; SCHILLING, Grace 0-2).
Fouled out--SUNY Cortland-None, Oneonta State-None.
Rebounds--SUNY Cortland 29 (BIORDI, Ally 5; RANDO, Brittany 5), Oneonta State 52 (LONGTO, Sarah 9).
Assists--SUNY Cortland 11 (COHEN, Brittany 5), Oneonta State 16 (SCHILLING, Grace 5).
Total fouls--SUNY Cortland 18, Oneonta State 15.
Technical fouls--SUNY Cortland-None, Oneonta State-None.
A-406