For the third time this season, the SUNY Oneonta women's basketball team was facing its rival SUNY Cortland. Oneonta had defeated Cortland in the first two meetings during the regular season and tonight; the two were meeting in the quarterfinals of the SUNYAC tournament. It was the first meeting between the two rivals in the tournament since 2008 in the semifinals.
Tonight's win would go to the visiting Red Dragons by the final of 67-58. Junior Erin Wolstenholme led four Cortland players in double figures with 16 points.
Oneonta carried a 34-32 lead into the second half, but seven unanswered points by Cortland gave them the lead for good at the 14:51 mark. A three-point play by senior Grace Williamson broke a 39-39 tie. Williamson finished the game with seven points and a game high 13 rebounds.
Cortland continued to build its lead and raised it to double digits on a three-point play by Wolstenholme at the 7:03 mark, which put Cortland ahead 57-47.
Cortland led by as many as 13 points late in the game before Oneonta made a final push. A
Sarah Longto (Kingston/Kingston) put back and a coast-to-coast lay up by
Alyshia Crawford (Oxford/Oxford) cut the lead to nine points with 1:40 remaining in the game. Oneonta continued to battle in the final minute, but couldn't get a shot to fall to get any closer.
Crawford led all scorers in the game with 26 points to go with eight rebounds and two steals. Classmate
Grace Schilling (Northport/Northport) added 11 points and four assists.
Cortland hit its first three shots of the game, all from long range to grab an early 9-6 lead. Wolstenholme hit her first two shots from behind the arc en route to 11 first half points.
Cortland held its largest lead of the first half at 21-16 with just over 10 minutes to go before Oneonta scored 11 unanswered to take a 27-21 lead with just under seven minutes left. Crawford scored six points and
Lyteshia Price (Liverpool/Liverpool) added four points to lead the run. Crawford led all scorers with 15 first half points.
Cortland would battle back to tie the game at 29 apiece, led by Caysea Cohen, who would bury two from deep. Cortland made eight three-point baskets in the opening half and 11 field goals overall.
Neither team would score a point for nearly three minutes until Schilling made a pair of free throws to break the 29 all tie. A pair of foul shots by Longto with no time on the clock would give Oneonta a 34-32 lead at halftime.
Cortland will now advance to face top-seeded Plattsburgh on Friday night at 8pm in the semifinals. The game will be at Plattsburgh after they won the regular season crown to earn the No. 1 seed. The Friday night winners will play on Saturday afternoon at 4pm for the championship and the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III tournament. Cortland has already won its two meetings this season against Plattsburgh.
Newspaper Box Score
SUNY CORTLAND 67, SUNY ONEONTA 58
SUNY CORTLAND (16-10)
WOLSTENHOLME, Erin 5-8 3-5 16; BYRNES, Phoebe 4-11 3-4 14; TOUHEY, Megan 3-13 4-4 12; COHEN, Caysea 3-8 4-4 12; WILLIAMSON, Grace 3-10 1-3 7; RANDO, Brittany 1-3 0-0 3; MINOR, Lindsey 1-2 0-0 2; SEGER, Sarah 0-2 1-2 1; WHITE, Shannon 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-58 16-22 67.
SUNY ONEONTA (18-8)
CRAWFORD, Alyshia 10-27 4-5 26; SCHILLING, Grace 1-4 9-15 11; PRICE, Lyteshia 3-6 0-1 6; LONGTO, Sarah 2-5 1-2 5; DiPASQUALE, Sara 2-5 0-0 4; MULLIGAN, Kelly 0-3 4-6 4; LOOMIS, Bryn 0-2 2-2 2; ADAMS, Cara 0-5 0-0 0; SPECTOR, Brianna 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-58 20-31 58.
3-point goals--SUNY Cortland 11-28 (WOLSTENHOLME, Erin 3-5; BYRNES, Phoebe 3-9; COHEN, Caysea 2-5; TOUHEY, Megan 2-5; RANDO, Brittany 1-3; SEGER, Sarah 0-1), SUNY Oneonta 2-16 (CRAWFORD, Alyshia 2-11; PRICE, Lyteshia 0-2; ADAMS, Cara 0-3).
Fouled out--SUNY Cortland-WILLIAMSON, Grace, SUNY Oneonta-None.
Rebounds--SUNY Cortland 44 (WILLIAMSON, Grace 13), SUNY Oneonta 42 (LONGTO, Sarah 9). Assists--SUNY Cortland 11 (TOUHEY, Megan 3), SUNY Oneonta 8 (SCHILLING, Grace 4).
Total fouls--SUNY Cortland 24, SUNY Oneonta 21.
Technical fouls--SUNY Cortland-TOUHEY, Megan, SUNY Oneonta-None.
A-307
