Women's Basketball Tops Vassar in Liberty League Opener

ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's basketball team picked up a win in the Liberty League season opener, topping Vassar 68-54. Junior Cassidy O'Malley and sophomores Grace Cannonand Abbi Field all led the Bombers' scoring efforts with 12 points apiece. Cannon also grabbed eight rebounds and four steals to go along with a block. Senior Annie Giannone also added nine points, six rebounds on the day while Allie Tunick added eight. The Bombers opened up the game with six straight points from Tunick and O'Malley. Vassar followed that up with a layup from Jackie Cenan and a three from Isa Peczuh to cut IC's lead to just one point. Ithaca took its biggest lead of the quarter with 2:43 left after scoring six points in a row. O'Malley netted back-to-back layups before Field hit a jumper to extend IC's lead to 17-8. An and-one play from Vassar's Sophie Nick cut IC's lead to six points with 25 second left in the first quarter. The Brewers' closed the gap to 19-15 in the opening minute of the second quarter, but the Bombers went on to build up a double-digit lead after scoring 10 straight points. Field started the run with a three-point play following a foul before O'Reilly and Cannon hit back-to-back layups. Field pushed IC's advantage up to 29-15 with 7:03 left in the third quarter with a shot from behind the arc. Cenan ended the scoring drought for Vassar, netting a three at the 5:17 mark on a pass from Nick. The Bombers outscored the Brewers 8-2 to end the first half, starting with a layup and a jumper from Cannon. With 1:04 left, Pickell hit a layup before Giannone added two more points for IC, pushing the advantage to 19 points. Ithaca maintained a double-digit lead through the remainder of the game, building up as much as a 20-point lead. The Bombers eclipsed the 20-point mark with 4:27 left in the third when Tunick drained a shot from behind the arc. IC once again took a 20-point lead with 2:41 left in the third on a Meghan Mazzella layup. The Bombers held on to the 20-point lead to head into the fourth, as O'Reilly hit a layup with 38 seconds left. Ithaca continued to extend its lead, as Megan Yawman hit a layup 1:09 into the final quarter. O'Reilly followed that up with a jumper a minute later to extend the Bombers' advantage to 24 points. The Brewers cut IC's lead to 14 points multiple times in the fourth quarter, but could never come closer than that. Skylar Schmid hit the final jumper of the game, with 48 seconds left, leading to IC's 68-54 victory. Vassar was led by Nick, who scored 16 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Ithaca is back in action tomorrow at 2 p.m. against Bard to close out Liberty League opening weekend.