GENESEO, N.Y. –
Nyia Longford (Medford/Longwood) led three Cortland double-figure scorers with 18 points as the Red Dragons' women's basketball team wrapped up the regular season with a 77-64 win at Geneseo.
Cortland (21-4, 16-2 SUNYAC) finished second in the SUNYAC standings and will receive a bye into the SUNYAC tournament semifinals next Friday at top-seeded New Paltz. The Red Dragons will play either third-seeded Oneonta or sixth-seeded Potsdam, with the winner advancing to Saturday's championship game. Geneseo (18-7, 13-5 SUNYAC) finished tied for third with Oneonta in the league standings but due to a coin flip will be the fourth seed in the playoffs and will host fifth-seeded Brockport Tuesday in the first round.
Longford hit 8-of-10 shots from the field and also finished with five rebounds and a career-high seven assists.
Emily Morano (Olyphant, PA/Mid Valley) scored 15 points, including 6-of-6 foul shooting, and added five rebounds and two assists.
Julia Siler (Seaford) scored a career-high 12 points.
Sarah Tully (East Aurora) scored nine points and hauled in seven rebounds.
Fiona Mullen (Orangeburg/Tappan Zee) made both of her 3-pointers and ended with eight points.
Casey Travers (Manorville/Eastport-South Manor) finished with five points, five assists and four rebounds, and
Logan Streety (Elma/Iroquois) went 3-for-3 from the floor in a six-point effort.
Lauren Romito led Geneseo with 17 points and nine rebounds and Kiley Snow scored 13 points. They were each 6-for-11 from the field. Mackenzie Reigle scored 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
Cortland shot 61 percent from the field in the second half and finished the game at 57 percent. Geneseo hit 50 percent of its first-half shots and ended at 44 percent.
Cortland fell behind 11-1 less than four minutes into the game and trailed by 12 points at 16-4 with 4:21 remaining in the first quarter. The Red Dragons, however, closed the period on a 10-2 run, including six points from Longford, and were down only four, 18-14, after 10 minutes.
Cortland took its first lead at 28-26 on a Streety layup with 4:17 remaining before halftime, and the Red Dragons eventually extended the margin to seven, 37-30, when Mullen made a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the half. Cortland then opened the second half on a 13-5 streak that featured 3-pointers from Siler, Travers and Longford to go up 50-35. The Red Dragons lead was 57-46 after three quarters and as much as 20 at 66-46 with 6:16 left in the contest. Geneseo fought back to as close as nine points in the final two minutes.
